Methods and Apparatus for Transmitting Capability Information

ABSTRACT

Methods performed by base stations and wireless devices for controlling the transmission and reception of capability information are disclosed. A method performed by a wireless device comprises: receiving an indication of one or more protocols that are supported by the network for transmission of capability information; responsive to the wireless device supporting at least one of the one or more protocols for transmission of capability information, selecting a first protocol that is supported by the wireless device from the at least one of the one or more protocols, and transmitting capability information associated with the wireless device to the base station according to the first protocol. A method performed by a base station comprises: initiating transmission of an indication of one or more protocols that are supported by the network for transmission of capability information; and responsive to the wireless device supporting at least one of the one or more protocols, receiving capability information associated with the wireless device according to a first protocol of the one or more protocols. Also disclosed are base stations and wireless devices configured to perform the methods.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to methods and apparatus innetworks, and particularly wireless devices, base stations and methodsin wireless devices and base stations for transmission and reception ofcapability information.

BACKGROUND

Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according totheir ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field, unless adifferent meaning is clearly given and/or is implied from the context inwhich it is used. All references to a/an/the element, apparatus,component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referringto at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means,step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methodsdisclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact orderdisclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following orpreceding another step and/or where it is implicit that a step mustfollow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodimentsdisclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, whereverappropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may applyto any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives, features andadvantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from thefollowing description.

Embodiments described herein relate to User Equipment (UE) capabilityinformation and the transmission of capability information from awireless device to a base station or network node, for example a RadioAccess Network (RAN) node (e.g., NG-RAN node, gNB, ng-eNB).

There may be different types of wireless devices in a communicationsnetwork. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standardizedifferent standards for wireless communication, for example, GlobalSystem for Mobile Communications (GSM), Wideband Code Division MultipleAccess (WCDMA), Long Term Evolution (LTE) and now also New Radio (NR),the new generation commonly referred to as “5G”. These differentabbreviations are denotations of different radio access technologies.Wireless devices operating in these networks may be capable ofcommunicating using one of these technologies/generations, or they maysupport several different technologies. Similarly, there may be manydifferent frequencies that are being used for wireless communication andsome wireless devices may support communication on some frequency bandswhereas other wireless devices may support communication on otherfrequency bands. Also, for each frequency band, there may be differentlevels of complexity in supporting, for example, different amounts ofinput/output streams, for example, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO)streams and this may mean that to properly describe what functionality aparticular wireless device is capable of supporting in any one momentmay require complex information and/or a large amount of information.

In 3GPP, a wireless device may inform the network about thecommunication capabilities of the wireless device. The wireless devicemay do this such that the network will have information available inorder to determine how best to configure communication paths orconnections between the wireless device and the network. Theseconnections may be, for example, communication connections to the radioaccess nodes (for example, in 3GPP the radio access nodes may be knownas gNB for NR/5G, and eNB for LTE/EUTRA). With the capabilityinformation of the wireless device available in the RAN nodes, it may bepossible for the network to determine which features of the network toturn on and activate, and which features not to activate etc., which maybe for example specific for different frequencies etc. However, byadding more and more features and supporting more and more frequenciesin the standard, the UE Radio Capabilities specified by 3GPP haveincreased in size, making the transmission of the UE Radio capabilityinformation very costly in terms of network resource usage as well asprocessing in both the wireless device and the network nodes when thecapability information needs to be transferred between relevant networkentities, for example, between the wireless device (or UE), the Accessand Mobility Management Function (AMF) and the Next Generation RadioAccess Network (NG-RAN).

In some examples, the amount of capability information is too much forthe wireless device to transfer all of the capability information.

In particular, it may be beneficial to improve the interface signaling,processing in the nodes and memory usage involved in the transmission ofcapability information. There may be a need to enable the transfer ofthe capability information at all, i.e., it may be beneficial to provideprotocol improvements.

FIG. 1 illustrates an enquiry-information procedure between a userequipment UE (or wireless device) and a NG RAN node used to transfercapability information in NR.

In step 101 as shown in FIG. 1, the network transmits aUECapabilityEnquiry to the UE. The UECapabilityEnquiry requests that theUE transmit capability information to the network. The network mayinitiate the procedure by sending the UECapabilityEnquiry to a UE inRRC_CONNECTED when it needs (additional) UE radio access capabilityinformation.

The UE receives the UECapabilityEnquiry and will then determine whatcapability information that is requested. This can be referred to as a“filter” as it actually indicates to the UE, from all possible elementsin the capability information, it should filter out a certain set ofelements and transmit only the capability information requested. It doesso by reading a UE-CapabilityRAT-RequestList indicating what radioaccess technologies that the gNB requests capability information for.This may include different indications, e.g., that the UE should provideinformation about NR capabilities, E-UTRA capabilities or evensituations for when the UE may be simultaneously connected to both radioaccesses.

For each access/Radio Access Technology (RAT) type, the UE may includeinformation about: supported band combinations, features and featurecombinations. The UE may ensure that the feature set IDs and feature setcombination IDs are consistent across feature sets, feature setcombinations and band combinations in all UE capability containers (perRAT) that the network queries with the same FreqBandList and with thesame eutra-nr-only flag (where applicable).

Currently, if the UE cannot include all feature sets and feature setcombinations due to message size or list size constraints, it is up toUE implementation which feature sets and feature set combinations itprioritizes for transmission as part of the UECapabilityInformation.

The UE may compile a list of “candidate band combinations” onlyconsisting of bands included in FreqBandList, which may be prioritizedin the order of FreqBandList (i.e. first include band combinationscontaining the first-listed band, then include remaining bandcombinations containing the second-listed band, and so on)

The procedure above describes the sequence for transmitting capabilityinformation between UE and gNB. Typically this information may be storedtogether with other information in the NG-RAN node for as long as the UEis connected to the NG RAN node, or it is in RRC_INACTIVE.

The capability information associated with the UE may also be stored inthe context in the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF). Inthese examples, then the capability information may be transferred overthe NGAP/N2 interface for storing in the AMF. The procedure for this maybe referred to as UE radio capability info indication and is illustratedin FIG. 1B.

The purpose of the UE Radio Capability Info Indication procedure may beto enable the NG-RAN node to provide the AMF with UE radiocapability-related information. The procedure may use UE-associatedsignalling.

The NG-RAN node controlling a UE-associated logical NG connection mayinitiate the procedure by sending a UE RADIO CAPABILITY INFO INDICATIONmessage to the AMF including the UE radio capability information.

The UE RADIO CAPABILITY INFO INDICATION message may also include pagingspecific UE radio capability information within the UE Radio Capabilityfor Paging IE.

The UE radio capability information received by the AMF may replacepreviously stored corresponding UE radio capability information in theAMF for the UE.

In some examples, instead of transferring complete capabilityinformation, a Capability ID is transferred from the UE to the network.The Capability ID may then map to a specific capability information setthat may be stored in the network. If the mapping between Capability IDand the actual capability information is available on the network side,then the cost of the UE altering the network as to its capabilities canbe decreased in that the size of the Capability ID can be made a lotsmaller than the actual capability information. The UE need thereforeonly transmit the Capability ID as a representation of the capabilityinformation. The network may then determine the actual capabilityinformation for the UE from the mapping between the Capability ID andthe specific capability information set.

Generally, the network nodes and the UE may be required to have acorresponding understand of what capability information is mapped to acertain Capability ID.

The advantages of the use of a Capability ID include that it may be moreefficient to signal. If the capabilities are associated and stored witheach UE, it may be more efficient to just store a Capability ID than thefull capability information for all UEs. The capability informationwould then only need to be stored in a mapping table once. This may savememory. Similarly, parsing capability information in the network nodesmay be a costly process from a processing perspective and to, subsequentto this, produce a configuration of all possible configurations may alsoincrease processing. If it would be possible to map certainpre-configured configurations and have already a set of parsedcapabilities at hand and map to an ID, this may also lead to advantagesregarding processing load.

Two examples of Capability ID's may be:

1) A Manufacturer-assigned UE Capability ID: The UE Capability ID may beassigned by the UE manufacturer, in which case it may be accompaniedwith the UE manufacturer information (e.g. Type Approval Code (TAC)field in the Permanent Equipment Identifier (PEI)). In this case, the UECapability ID may uniquely identify a set of UE Radio Capabilities forthis manufacturer and device, and together with this UE manufacturerinformation, may uniquely identify this set of UE Radio Capabilities inany Public Land Mobile Network (PLMN);

2) A PLMN-specific Capability ID: If a manufacturer-assigned UECapability ID is not used by the UE or the serving network, or it is notrecognised by the serving network, the serving core network may allocateUE Capability IDs for the UE corresponding to different sets of UE RadioCapabilities the PLMN may receive at different times from the UE. Inthis case, the UE Capability IDs that the UE receives may be applicableto the serving PLMN, and may uniquely identify the corresponding sets ofUE Radio Capabilities in this PLMN.

If a UE Capability ID is assigned by a PLMN when a UE capability filteris used, then the UE Capability ID may be related to the CapabilityFilter.

The network or the Manufacturer may be able to change the UE CapabilityID associated with a device, e.g., due to a SW upgrade enabling new UERadio Capabilities on the device side (for the manufacturer assigned UECapability ID) in the network side.

At any given instant the UE may only have one UE Capability ID that isindicated to the network.

The mapping between a specific Capability ID and the correspondingcapability information may not change once set.

Owing to the need to support UE Radio Capabilities information sizeexceeding 65 536 bytes (i.e. >524 288 bits), and, the need to supportfast, reliable, low processing complexity mechanisms for frequently usedprocedures (at least Service Request, RRC Connection Resume, X2&Xnhandover, secondary gNB addition), the full UE Radio Capabilities (inother words all of the capability information associated with a UE) maynot normally be transferred as part of those procedures. This requiresthat the serving and target RAN stores a local copy of the mappingbetween the UE Capability IDs and the full UE Radio Capabilities for theUEs that frequently use that RAN node.

If a UE Capability ID assigned by a PLMN is the result of the UEsignalling capability information related to a UE capability filterprovided by the network, the UE Capability ID may be stored alongside (areference to) the filter which was used when the capabilities associatedto the ID were signalled.

An AMF that supports Capability IDs may be mandated to have access toall capability information for a UE and the mapping between UECapability ID and the corresponding capability information for at leastthe UEs registered in this AMF.

An NG-RAN that supports Capability IDs, may be mandated to be able tomaintain local storage of UE Radio Capabilities, and to have access tothe mapping between the UE Capability ID and all capability informationfor a UE.

A specific NG-RAN node that does not have the mapping between a specificUE Capability ID and the corresponding UE Radio Capabilities, may beable to retrieve the mapping from the core network (CN).

The serving AMF stores the UE Capability ID in the UE context, ifreceived, and may provide the Capability ID to NG-RAN via N2 message,e.g. INITIAL CONTEXT SETUP REQUEST.

For UEs that are already assigned with an applicable UE Capability ID,it may be mandatory to signal the UE Capability ID in an InitialRegistration. If both PLMN assigned and manufacturer assigned UECapability IDs are available, the UE may signal the PLMN assigned UECapability ID.

To allow for a mix of upgraded and non-upgraded RAN nodes over the X2/Xninterfaces, the UE Capability ID may be included in the Path Switchsignalling between Mobility Management Entity (MME)/AMF and RAN.

For backwards compatibility between nodes that support Capability IDsand nodes that do not support Capability IDs, if a peer node is notsupporting Capability IDs, the source node may attempt to send to thepeer node the UE capability information that map to the UE CapabilityID. However, owing to message size limits, this may lead to an inter-CNnode handover systematically failing, or, requiring the retrieval of theUE capability information across the target RAN node's radio interface.

When a UE Capability ID is associated to a UE capability filter, theassociation to this filter may be conveyed over the signallinginterfaces when a mapping between the UE Capability ID and the UEcapability information is provided. This may include the interfacebetween the UE and the Network.

In addition to the above, a Capability ID may be provided in differentways. For example, one possible way to provide a Capability ID is toperform a hash operation on the capability information. For example, theUE may calculate a HASH value of a set of the capability informationassociated with the UE and may transmit the HASH value to network andthe network will determinate if a corresponding set of capabilityinformation is already available. If the corresponding set of capabilityinformation is not available, then the capability information may needto be retrieved from the UE. When the network then receives thecapability information, the RAN may need to calculate the HASH value inorder to validate that the HASH value corresponds to the previouslyreceived hash value, before the received capability information isaccepted.

For example, two options for using a HASH to provide a Capability IDare:

1) With the assumption that each subset of UE Radio Capabilities iscalculated with SHA-256 hash the probability is very low that twodifferent UE Radio Capabilities have the same hash value so there maynot be any solution provided for this scenario.

2) The UE Capability ID may be extended to also include a devicemanufacturer unique identifier, this may be, for example, the TAC code.The UE vendor/manufacturer may also need to ensure that two different UERadio Capabilities do not produce the same HASH value when the order ofthe two individual UE Radio Capabilities are re-arranged, to ensure aunique hash.

There currently exist certain challenge(s). One of the aspects oftransmitting the Capability ID is that there is a need to have the sameunderstanding of what the Capability ID maps to in both the UE and thenetwork. In other words, one of the challenges is to always maintain acorrect view of what the Capability ID means, what capabilityinformation it maps to. The network nodes and the UE may therefore berequired to have the same understanding of this.

In some situations, it may anyway be needed to utilize the capabilityenquiry/information procedure as described above with reference to FIG.1, and in these situations, it may be needed to work and support theinformation that is necessary to transfer. Thus, it may be desirable toimprove the enquiry/information procedure in order to support thesituations (however few, e.g., with support from Capability IDsolutions) when there is actually a need to transfer a lot of capabilityinformation.

If these mechanisms to improve the enquiry/information procedure arefound and introduced (currently segmentation and compression areexamples of such mechanisms as will be described later) there is a needfor the network and the UE to agree on which of these mechanisms to usefor transmission of the capability information. This pose a challenge,as, at the enquiry/information procedure, there has not yet been anytransmission of capability information from the UE, so the network maynot be aware of which, if any, of the mechanisms that the UE supports.

Similarly, there may be a need for the network to be able to select acapability transmission method that it both supports and prioritizes.

When compression is used, several different compression protocols may besupported. Different compression protocols may have differentproperties, for example when it comes to processing and memoryrequirements. For example, compression protocol A may be more complexand may require storage of larger dictionaries and states thatcompression protocol B, but protocol A may also provide bettercompression than B.

Some compression protocols may be configured in several ways. Forexample, for gzip there are configuration parameters to configure thecompression to be either fast, or to compress as much as possible. Anextract of the manual page for gzip on Unix systems, available athttps://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?gzip as of 6 Jan. 2020, shows:

-   -   GZIP(1) BSD General Commands Manual GZIP(1)    -   Name        -   gzip—compression/decompression tool using Lempel-Ziv coding            (LZ77)    -   Synopsis        -   gzip [-cdfhkLINnqrtVv][-S suffix] file [file [ . . . ]]        -   gunzip [-cfhkLNqrtVv] [-S suffix] file [file [ . . . ]]        -   zcat [-fhV] file [file [ . . . ]]    -   Description        -   The gzip program compresses and decompresses files using            Lempel-Ziv coding (LZ77). If no files are specified, gzip            will compress from standard input, or decompress to standard            output. When in compression mode, each file will be replaced            with another file with the suffix, set by the −S suffix            option, added, if possible.        -   In decompression mode, each file will be checked for            existence, as will the file with the suffix added. Each file            argument must contain a separate complete archive; when            multiple files are indicated, each is decompressed in turn.        -   In the case of gzcat the resulting data is then concatenated            in the manner of cat(1).        -   If invoked as gunzip then the −d option is enabled. If            invoked as zcat or gzcat then both the −c and -d options are            enabled.        -   This version of gzip is also capable of decompressing files            compressed using compress(1), bzip2(1), or xz(1).    -   Options        -   The following options are available:        -   −1, —fast        -   −2, −3, −4, −5, −6, −7, −8        -   −9, —best These options change the compression level used,            with the −1 option being the fastest, with less compression,            and the −9 option being the slowest, with optimal            compression. The default compression level is 6.        -   . . . remaining text removed . . . .

A consequence of supporting several compression protocols and/orconfiguration options within each protocol without any indication fromthe network is that the UE may choose to use a compression method orconfiguration that is suboptimal for the network. For example, using acompression method that requires a lot of processing and/or memory mightbe acceptable under some operating conditions. However, for otheroperating conditions, the unit that does the decompression may alreadybe heavily loaded, in which case it would be beneficial to use acompression method or configuration that is less complex and/or needsless storage.

Furthermore, this also means that more testing and verification may beneeded before the implementation can be deployed in a commercialnetwork.

Existing methods do not provide any means for indicating whichcompression protocol or configuration that is currently preferred overother compression protocols or configurations.

-   [1] TS 38.331 v 15.4.0 available at    https://portal.3gpp.org/desktopmodules/Specifications/Specification    Details.aspx?specificationId=3197 as of 6 Jan. 2020 specifies the    Radio Resource Control protocol for the radio interface between UE    and NG-RAN.-   [2] TS 38.413 v 15.2.0 available at    https://portal.3gpp.org/desktopmodules/Specifications/Specification    Details.aspx?specificationId=3223 as of 6 Jan. 2020 specifies the    radio network layer signalling protocol for the NG interface.-   [3] TR 23.743 v 1.1.0 available at    https://portal.3gpp.org/desktopmodules/Specifications/Specification    Details.aspx?specificationId=3484 as of 6 Jan. 2020 considers    optimizations of system procedures pertaining to the transfer UE    Radio Capabilities related information to RAN, and optimizations of    system procedures related to transfer UE Radio Capabilities    impacting the Core Network.-   [4] TS 23.501 v 15.4.0 available at    https://portal.3gpp.org/desktopmodules/Specifications/Specification    Details.aspx?specificationld=3144 as of 6 Jan. 2020 defines the    Stage 2 system architecture for the 5G System. The 5G System    provides data connectivity and services.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present disclosure to improve the efficiency ofUE capability information transfer, thereby minimising processor usage,memory usage and interface signaling requirements.

Embodiments of the disclosure aim to provide apparatus and methods thatalleviate some or all of the issues identified.

An aspect of an embodiment of the disclosure provides a method performedby a wireless device for transmitting capability information to a basestation in a network, the method comprising: receiving an indication ofone or more protocols that are supported by the network for transmissionof capability information; responsive to the wireless device supportingat least one of the one or more protocols for transmission of capabilityinformation, selecting a first protocol that is supported by thewireless device from the at least one of the one or more protocols, andtransmitting capability information associated with the wireless deviceto the base station according to the first protocol.

A further aspect of an embodiment of the disclosure provides a methodperformed by a base station for controlling the receipt of capabilityinformation from a wireless device at the base station, the methodcomprising: initiating transmission of an indication of one or moreprotocols that are supported by the network for transmission ofcapability information; and responsive to the wireless device supportingat least one of the one or more protocols, receiving capabilityinformation associated with the wireless device according to a firstprotocol of the one or more protocols.

A still further aspect of an embodiment of the disclosure provides awireless device for transmitting capability information to a basestation in a network, the wireless device comprising: processingcircuitry configured to perform the steps of: receiving an indication ofone or more protocols that are supported by the network for transmissionof capability information; responsive to the wireless device supportingat least one of the one or more protocols for transmission of capabilityinformation, selecting a first protocol that is supported by thewireless device from the at least one of the one or more protocols, andtransmitting capability information associated with the wireless deviceto the base station according to the first protocol; and power supplycircuitry configured to supply power to the wireless device.

A yet further aspect of an embodiment of the disclosure provides a basestation for controlling the receipt of capability information from awireless device, the base station comprising: processing circuitryconfigured to perform any of the steps of: initiating transmission of anindication of one or more protocols that are supported by the networkfor transmission of capability information; and responsive to thewireless device supporting at least one of the one or more protocols,receiving capability information associated with the wireless deviceaccording to a first protocol of the one or more protocols; and powersupply circuitry configured to supply power to the base station

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the present disclosure, and to show how itmay be put into effect, reference will now be made, by way of exampleonly, to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A is a signaling diagram of a UE capability information transferprocedure;

FIG. 1B is a signaling diagram of a UE radio capability info indicationtransfer procedure;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a 5G system architecture;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a RRC State machine;

FIG. 4 is a signaling diagram illustrating an example of use of acapacity ID;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the segmenting of capabilityinformation;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the steps performed by a wirelessdevice and a gNB in an aspect of an embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a wireless network in accordance withsome embodiments;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a user equipment in accordance withsome embodiments;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a virtualization environment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of a telecommunication network connectedvia an intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with someembodiments;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a host computer communicating via abase station with a user equipment over a partially wireless connectionin accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a method in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of a virtualization apparatus inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of a further method in accordance with someembodiments; and

FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram of a further virtualization apparatus inaccordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments mayprovide solutions to these or other challenges. In some embodiments, thenetwork is able to transmit an indication of one or more protocols thatare supported by the base station for transmission of capabilityinformation. The indication may also identify a priority associated witheach of the one or more protocols. This may therefore be an indicationto the UE both what transmission protocols the network supports andwhich of those protocols the base station prefers.

In some embodiments, the UE may, among all the protocols fortransmission of capability information that it supports, select aprotocol that is associated with a highest priority from a network/gNBindication.

If the UE doesn't support any of the capability transmission method, itmay fall back to a lowest priority or a legacy protocol that the UE isaware is supported by the network.

In some embodiments, the indication from the base station furthercomprises a size indication associated with each of the one or moreprotocols respectively, wherein the size indicator indicates one of: amaximum size of a message to be transmitted by the wireless devicecomprising the capability information, or a number of messages to betransmitted by the wireless device to transmit the capabilityinformation. The size indication can be expressed in, e.g., bits, or innumber of segments for the transmission method that relates tosegmentation for example.

In some embodiments, the indication identifies a filter associated witheach of the one or more protocols respectively, wherein the filterindicates which capability information the wireless device shouldtransmit according to the associated protocol. If there is a listreceived from the network of different prioritized protocols, these canalso have an associated filter. This means that, e.g., if the UEsupports a protocol that allows for transmission of a lot of capabilityinformation, the base station may be interested in the UE transmittingas much capability information as possible, whereas if the UE is onlysupporting a protocol that allows for much less capability informationto be transmitted, then the base station may be interested in a subsetof the capability information.

In some examples, the one or more protocols may comprise a plurality ofprotocols utilizing compression. The indication may indicate that someprotocols utilizing compression are more suitable to use than others.

The priority indication can be performed in several different ways. Forexample, one possibility is to associate a priority value with eachindicated protocol. Another possibility is to sort the list of protocolsinto priority order (increasing or decreasing) such that the UE wouldunderstand which protocol is the preferred protocol from the list, basedon the order in which the protocols are listed.

There are, proposed herein, various embodiments which address one ormore of the issues disclosed herein.

Certain embodiments may provide one or more of the following technicaladvantage(s). Embodiments described herein address the problem ofindicating a capability transmission method from the gNB/network to theUE without knowing what the UE is supporting.

Some of the embodiments contemplated herein will now be described morefully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Other embodiments,however, are contained within the scope of the subject matter disclosedherein, the disclosed subject matter should not be construed as limitedto only the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments areprovided by way of example to convey the scope of the subject matter tothose skilled in the art.

Embodiments will now be described with reference to the 5G system andarchitecture for 5G and various state machines.

One “state machine” is the connection management state model or CM-statemodel.

Generally, connection management comprises of functions for establishingand releasing signaling connections between a UE and core network node,for 5G this node may be an AMF (Access and Mobility ManagementFunction).

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a 5G system architecture, includingNodes (e.g., AMF, UE, (R)AN) and interface names. Connection managementmay relate to signaling connection over the N1 interface illustrated inFIG. 2.

The signaling connection over N1 may be used to enableNon-Access-Stratum (NAS) signaling exchange between the UE and the corenetwork. The N1 interface may comprise both the access node (AN)signaling connection between the UE and the AN (Access Node) and the N2connection, between the AN and the AMF (as also shown in FIG. 2).

There may be two CM-states defined, CM-IDLE and CM-CONNECTED.

A UE in CM-IDLE may have no NAS signaling connection established over N1to the AMF whereas if it is in CM-CONNECTED, there is a signalingconnection.

In a similar way as in the AMF, there may also be a state model in theAN, the access network.

Herefrom, the term “gNB” is used for the access network node, but it mayequally well be another node type, e.g., an ng-eNB, an eNB. The term“gNB” shall thus be considered an example, rather than a limitation inthe applicability of the present disclosure.

One state model in the gNB is the RRC State machine, as illustrated inFIG. 3.

A UE may either be in RRC_CONNECTED, RRC_INACTIVE or RRC_IDLE.

FIG. 3 illustrates the intention with which the RRC State machine willwork, and the messages used to trigger/transition a UE between thestates. The figure shows the principles for transition.

The mapping between the different state machines, the one in the AN andthe one in AMF (such as those shown in FIGS. 2 and 3), is such thatCM-CONNECTED can map to either RRC_CONNECTED or RRC_INACTIVE—whileCM-IDLE always map to RRC_IDLE.

A UE is either in RRC_CONNECTED state or in RRC_INACTIVE state when anRRC connection has been established. If this is not the case, i.e. noRRC connection is established, the UE is in RRC_IDLE state.

When, for example, a UE registers with the network a signaling sequencetakes place that starts with the UE sending an RRC setuprequest/establishment request to an NG-RAN node. This request is sent toestablish a signaling connection that would allow transmission ofcontrol messages, both to RAN, but also messages that go to a corenetwork node, such as an AMF over the N1 interface. In exampleembodiments of the present disclosure, the main interfaces involved are:

1) The interface between the AMF and the NG RAN node (e.g, gNB, ng-eNB)This is referred to as NGAP or N2 interface.

2) The interface between the AMF and the UE. This is referred to as theN1 interface. Sometimes the term NAS signaling will be mentioned. Thisrefers to signaling that is sent on the N1 interface, i.e., it is notinterpreted by the NG-RAN node even though of course the RAN node isinvolved in forwarding the NAS messages.

3) The interface between the NG-RAN node and the UE. This is referred toas the Uu interface and the relevant signaling protocol over thisinterface is the RRC, the Radio Resource Control Protocol.

Turning now to the signaling, mainly between these nodes, in connectionto an initial registration scenario.

While there may be variations to the sequence of signalling, anddifferent radio access technologies have different naming conventions onthe signals, the illustration included in FIG. 4 depicts an example ofuse of a Capability ID.

The signaling starts between a UE and gNB, with the setup of an RRCconnection. Step 1-3 in FIG. 4 illustrate this. The setup completemessage may include a piggybacked NAS message, or alternatively, the NAStransport in the uplink may happen after some information exchangebetween the gNB and the AMF after having sent the Initial UE message.

In one example the Capability ID may be included in the Initial UEmessage to the AMF. i.e., it includes that the NAS message piggybackedin the Setup Complete step 3. In this example, the Capability ID reachesthe AMF prior to transmission of the InitialContextSetupRequest from theAMF to the gNB.

Once the InitialContextSetupRequest is received in the gNB, the gNBdetects if there is a Capability ID it can interpret in theInitialContextSetupRequest and, in particular if there is sufficientcapability information in the mapping of this Capability ID.

If the information corresponding to the Capability ID that is availablein the gNB is not deemed sufficient, or alternatively, if no mappingdata or perhaps not any explicit information either was available,neither in the AMF nor in the gNB, the gNB may need to commence theprocess of requesting capability information in the enquiry-informationexchange between the gNB and the UE. It will be appreciated that thisprocedure is in this illustration executed after security command, i.e.,after setup of security between the UE and the gNB. Dependent on thesensitivity level of the Capability ID this may be preferred. If theCapability ID is not sensitive to, e.g., eavesdropping, it may bepossible to run the enquiry procedure prior to security is activated.

The information exchange in the enquiry/information may include also theactual Capability ID.

Once the capability information is received by the gNB, the gNB may thenhave all the capability information that it needs and gNB would thentypically, in cases when the AMF didn't have any information, update theAMF with the capability information for that particular UE. The AMF willthen indirectly also get mapping data, i.e., an interpretation of theCapability ID that it can also store in a mapping table.

According to some examples, signaling of capability information may alsobe addressed by actually optimizing the capability enquiry and thecapability information transmission, not by replacing everything with aCapability ID, but by introducing other mechanisms.

The optimization of transmission in the enquiry-information exchange maybe needed irrespective of if there is a Capability ID implemented ornot. In certain networks, there may not be a solution for transmitting aCapability ID in the first place, and then, the UE capabilityenquiry/information procedure will always be used when capabilities arenot available in any of the network nodes.

Thus, different protocols to improve transmission of capabilityinformation in the enquiry/information exchange are considered. As anexample, a protocol utilising compression to transmit the capabilityinformation may be considered. With compression, it may be possible toreduce a lot of capability information to a smaller amount of capabilityinformation without losing content. Examples of compression are, e.g.,well known zip-compression and gzip. It is generally referred to asloss-less compression as no data is really lost. To compressinformation, a dictionary may be used and then, instead of repetitivelysending a long string, a shorter string, a shorter word is sent,according to the dictionary.

There may be different types of dictionaries and methods on how to treatthem. In one example, the dictionary can be transmitted together withthe actual capability information. Dictionaries may be, e.g., static ordynamic dependent on how changes to the dictionary are introduced. Withcompression algorithms, it may therefore be possible to take largeamounts of information and represent it with a lesser amount. Theefficiency of the compression will depend on variability of the actualdata being compressed, the configuration of the compression method, andon the dictionary type used among other things. In some situations, itmay even be possible that compression yield a longer sequence than theuncompressed string.

Another mechanism considered to transmit capability information from theUE to the network is to consider if it can be done by sending it not inone segment or message but in several segments. There is currently nomethod for transmitting capability information in more than one PDCPdata unit and there are limitations to how much data this can contain.If however, it was possible to send several data units, it would bepossible to send more data, which in this example, amounts to morecapability information

The maximum anticipated size for combined size of capability informationfor the E-UTRA, NR, new radio, and dual-connectivity (DC) radiocapabilities might be very large (several tens of kilo-octets).Currently the PDCP protocol limits the single-shot capability signalingto 8188 octets in E-UTRAN and 9000 octets in NR.

Thus, RRC signaling could be segmented. In this way, a UE may providethe capability information in segments, each of having maximum size of9000 bytes. An example of segmenting of capability information isillustrated in FIG. 5.

There are also different ways in which the segmentation may bestandardized or done. For example, each segment may be decoded by thereceiver, the gNB, or each segment may be sent such that all segmentsneed to be gathered before it can be decoded.

Both compression and segmentation are considered as options forprotocols that allow the UE to transfer more capability information tothe network node, i.e., the NG-RAN node. Even combinations of these andother protocols may be considered.

Irrespective of what protocols are specified or supported by thenetwork, it may be necessary for the network and the UE to be able toexchange information about which protocols it supports, and whatprotocol to use in a capability information transmission.

The network may typically broadcast necessary information to the UE thatthe UE needs to know to access the network from RRC_IDLE mode andRRC_INACTIVE mode. Once the UE is in RRC_CONNECTED, signalling can bemade dedicated to specific UE's.

The only occasion when the UE transfers explicit capability informationis in the capability enquiry/information procedure and this proceduremay usually start from RRC_CONNECTED with the transmission of aUECapabilityEnquiry message, i.e., a request from the network, asdescribed above. Thus, to determine what, of several possible availableformats to transfer UE capability information, there is thus no need tobroadcast any information, as the indication of which protocol(s) the UEmay select may be included in the enquiry message.

One of the challenges is that the network has, at the point when itsends the enquiry, usually no information about what protocol(s) the UEsupports. The UE may not necessarily have implemented all possiblecapability transmission protocols, and may only know, for example, howto send one RRC message without any compression. In other words, the UEmay only be able to transmit capability using a legacy protocol, forexample with no compression or segmentation.

Thus, in some examples, there may be at least three different protocolsin which the UE may send capability information to the gNB in theUECapabilityInformation message:

-   -   a) Capability information as the legacy way, e.g., one RRC        segment, no compression    -   b) Capability information in RRC segmented fashion, including        more than one segment    -   c) Capability information compressed with a compression        algorithm (and possible options of this).

Combinations of these protocols may be used.

From this perspective, in some embodiments, a network node may initiatetransmission to a wireless device of an indication of one or moreprotocols that are supported by the network for transmission ofcapability information. The network node may comprise the base station,or may comprise another network node, configured to provide control tothe base station.

Responsive to the wireless device supporting at least one of the one ormore protocols, the wireless device may then transmit capabilityinformation associated with the wireless device according a firstprotocol of the one or more protocols. In other words, the wirelessdevice may select a protocol from the protocols supported by the networkthat the wireless device also supports.

In some examples, the indication identifies a priority associated witheach of the one or more protocols. The wireless device may then selectthe first protocol by selecting a protocol associated with a highestpriority from the at least one of the one or more protocols supported bythe wireless device. In some cases, the “priority” may be seen as adefining a required behaviour that the wireless device should use, i.e.to select the protocol with the highest possible priority. Analternative is to use a priority to indicate a preference of the networknode, that the wireless device may adhere to but the wireless devicewould still be allowed to use another protocol, if this is morepreferable for the wireless device.

If the wireless device supports many protocols, but the networkprioritizes usage of only one or two methods, then, the network node maynot have to include all protocols that the base station supports.

The wireless device may therefore select the first protocol by selectinga protocol associated with a highest priority from the at least one ofthe one or more protocols supported by the wireless device. This way, itis possible to control, from the network, what protocol the wirelessdevice selects to transfer capability invocation and at the same timedoing this without knowing which protocols the wireless device supports.

The indication may identify a priority associated with each of the oneor more protocols by listing the one or more protocols in order ofpriority.

The indication may identify a priority associated with each of the oneor more protocols by associating each of the one or more protocols withan explicit priority value.

The following illustrates an example of an indication transmitted fromthe network to the wireless device:

-   -   Capability message RRC Segmentation, 5    -   Capability information-R15

This may then be interpreted by the wireless device as indicating thatthe network supports receiving capability information in up to 5 RRCsegments (a first protocol), and prefers this over sending capabilityinformation according to Release 15 (i.e. the legacy protocol).

A second example indication may be:

-   -   Capability Compression, deflate—Segmentation, 3    -   Capability message RRC segmentation, 5    -   Capability information-R15

The above example indication would mean that the network also supportscompression-deflate and that it prefers that, if wireless device alsosupports this protocol, that this protocol is used preferentially toreceiving capability information in up to 5 RRC segments (a firstprotocol), which is used preferentially over sending capabilityinformation according to Release 15 (i.e. the legacy protocol).

The above example indication also identifies a size indicationassociated with at least one of the one or more protocols respectively,wherein the size indicator indicates one of: a maximum size of a messageto be transmitted by the wireless device comprising the capabilityinformation, or a number of messages to be transmitted by the wirelessdevice to transmit the capability information. In this examplespecifically, the size indicator indicates the number of segments ormessages to be used by the wireless device to transmit the capabilityinformation.

This above example therefore illustrates that the highest priorityprotocol is to receive capability information compressed and deflated,and sent in maximum 3 RRC segments. The 2^(nd) priority is transmittinguncompressed information sent over maximum 5 RRC segments, and thelowest priority protocol is transmitting is capability informationaccording to Release 15, aka the fall back transmission mode.

In another embodiment, the indication may comprise an indication of thetype of Capability ID the network would prefer the wireless device touse, for example, the network may indicate:

PLMN assigned ID,

Vendor assigned ID

Hash based ID.

This may be interpreted as the network indicating that the preferredtype of Capability ID is a PLMN assigned ID, followed by a vendorassigned ID, followed by a hash based ID. In some examples, the wirelessdevice may include the Capability ID together with the requestedcapability information.

In some embodiments, the last (legacy) option may be omitted andconsidered a fall back if either the indication is not included at all(this would be the situation for networks that don't support any of thefeatures) or if none of the indicated options are supported by thewireless device.

The option to send capability information explicitly, i.e., in the sameway as the fallback method, may not therefore need to be indicatedexplicitly in the indication.

Since this information may only be relevant in connection totransmission of capability information, in some embodiments, thisindication from the network is included in the UECapabilityEnquirymessage. In another aspect, there is also an indication included in theUECapabilityInformation message, on what protocol the UE has selected,such that this is explicitly indicated to the network. It may be clearin some cases which protocol is used, e.g., based on how many segmentsthe network receives, but it may be less clear in other cases, e.g.,what compression algorithm that may be used for example.

In some examples therefore, a wireless device may follow the indicationfrom the UECapabilityEnquiry message and select a protocol forUECapabilityInformation such that; if more than one protocol isindicated in the UECapabilityEnquiry message, the wireless device mayselect the highest prioritized method supported by the wireless device.However, if none of the indicated protocols, are supported by thewireless device, the wireless device may select the legacy protocol totransmit the UECapabilityInformation message accordingly. The wirelessdevice may include an indication of the selected protocol in theUECapabilityInformation message.

When a protocol utilising compression is supported, the indication mayalso identify different priorities (or preferences) for differentconfiguration options that may be available for the compression method.In other words, the one or more protocols may comprise a protocolutilizing compression, and the indication may identify a respectivepreference associated with each of a plurality of configuration optionsavailable for the protocol utilizing compression.

In the case that several protocols utilising compression are supported,the priority associated with each protocol, may comprise a priorityassociated with each of the different protocols utilising compression.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, instead ofsignaling only one filter in the enquiry message, it may be possible tosignal more than one filter, such that, dependent on what type ofcapability transmission the UE supports, it should send differentamounts of information. In this way, there will be an automatic connectbetween what the network requests and what the UE can deliver with itscapability signaling means.

In one example of this embodiment of the invention, the indicationidentifies a filter associated with each of the one or more protocolsrespectively, wherein the filter indicates which capability informationthe wireless device should transmit according to the associatedprotocol.

For example, the capability enquiry message may indicate:

-   -   Capability Compression, deflate—Segmentation, 4—Filter-1    -   Capability message RRC segmentation, 5—Filter-2    -   Capability information-R15—Filter-3

The difference in filter-1, -2, and -3 may be that to transmit allcapability information according to Filter-1 may only be possible if itis connected with a specific transmission functionality. If this is notsupported, the UE may instead, e.g., use Filter-3.

The scope of the disclosure is not restricted to capability signalingfeatures such as specific compression and segmentation solutions, oreven that both segmentation and compression are options. The connectionto a specific filter may also be done in situations when there is aCapability ID for example, as described above, or if there is onlysupport of capability segmentation. In one such example, the prioritizedlist from the network to the wireless device in the enquiry message maybe:

-   -   RRC-Segmentation, 5—Filter-1    -   Capability information-R15—Filter-3

Thus, more generally, dependent on what feature the wireless devicesupports, it may select the highest priority protocol, and may prepare aresponse to send the capability information message according to thatprotocol.

In some embodiments therefore, the wireless device may follow theindication from the UECapabilityEnquiry message and may select aprotocol for transmission of the UECapabilityInformation such that; ifmore than one protocol is indicated in the UECapabilityEnquiry message,the wireless device may select the highest prioritized protocolsupported by the wireless device and may prepare capability informationaccording this filter associated with the selected protocol. If noindicated protocol is supported by the wireless device, the wirelessdevice may transmit UECapabilityInformation message according to R15 andprepare capability information according to this filter associated withthe R15 legacy protocol. The wireless device may also include theselected protocol and filter in the UECapabilityInformation message.

FIG. 6 illustrates steps in the wireless device and in the gNBrespectively according to an embodiment.

Changes in Specification

Based on the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, the UECapabilityEnquiry messagecan be enhanced in the TS 38.331 specification using a new IEUE-CapabilitySignalling-RequestList as shown below:

UECapabilityEnquiry Information Element

-- ASN1START -- TAG-UECAPABILITYENQUIRY-START UECapabilityEnquiry ::=  SEQUENCE (  rrc-TransactionIdentifier   RRC-Transactionldentifier, criticalExtensions    CHOICE (   ueCapabilityEnquiry  UECapabilityEnquiry-IEs,   criticalExtensionsFuture  SEQUENCE { }  } }UECapabilityEnquiry-IEs ::= SEQUENCE {  ue-CapabilityRAT-RequestList UE-CapabilityRAT-RequestList,  lateNonCritical Extension   OCTET STRINGOPTIONAL,  nonCriticaIExtension     UECapabilityEnquiry-IEs-v16  OPTIONAL } UECapabilityEnquiry-IEs-v16-IEs ::= SEQUENCE {  ue-CapabilityRAT-RequestList  UE-CapabilityRAT-RequestList,  ue-CapabilitySignalling-RequestList UE-CapabilitySignalling-RequestList,   lateNonCritical Extension   OCTETSTRING  OPTIONAL,  nonCriticaIExtension   SEQUENCE{} OPTIONAL } --TAG-UECAPABILITYENQUIRY-STOP -- ASN1STOP

UE-CapabilitySignalling-RequestList Information Element

-- ASN1START -- TAG-UE-CAPABILITYRAT-REQUESTLIST-STARTUE-CapabilitySignalling-RequestList::=  SEQUENCE {  signalling-TypeSignalling-Type,   signalling-detail  Signalling-Detail  ... }Signalling-Type ::= SEQUENCE {  Compression BIT STRING (SIZE(2))  OPTIONAL,  Segmentation BIT STRING (SIZE(2))   OPTIONAL,  CapabilityID BIT STRING (SIZE(6))   OPTIONAL, } Signalling-Detail ::= SEQUENCE { Compression-type ::=  SEQUENCE { Gzip  ENUMERATED {true}    OPTIONAL,Winzip  ENUMERATED {true}    OPTIONAL, Zip  ENUMERATED {true}   OPTIONAL, Dictionary-avaialble  ENUMERATED {true}   OPTIONAL, ........ } Signalling-ID-type SEQUENCE {  Vendor-assigned ENUMERATED{true} OPTIONAL,  PLMN-assigned  ENUMERATED {true}    OPTIONAL, Hash-based  ENUMERATED {true}    OPTIONAL,  ........ }Segmentation-details SEQUENCE {  Max-segment-number INTEGER (0..X)  OPTIONAL, } } -- TAG-UE-CAPABILITYRAT-REQUESTLIST-STOP -- ASN1STOP

Although the subject matter described herein may be implemented in anyappropriate type of system using any suitable components, theembodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a wirelessnetwork, such as the example wireless network illustrated in FIG. 7. Forsimplicity, the wireless network of FIG. 7 only depicts network 706,network nodes 760 and 760 b, and WDs 710, 710 b, and 710 c. The wirelessdevices 710, 710 b, and 710 c may be configured as a wireless device orUE as described in any embodiment above. The network nodes 760 and 760 bmay be configured as described in any embodiment above. In practice, awireless network may further include any additional elements suitable tosupport communication between wireless devices or between a wirelessdevice and another communication device, such as a landline telephone, aservice provider, or any other network node or end device. Of theillustrated components, network node 760 and wireless device (WD) 710are depicted with additional detail. The wireless network may providecommunication and other types of services to one or more wirelessdevices to facilitate the wireless devices' access to and/or use of theservices provided by, or via, the wireless network.

The wireless network may comprise and/or interface with any type ofcommunication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio networkor other similar type of system. In some embodiments, the wirelessnetwork may be configured to operate according to specific standards orother types of predefined rules or procedures. Thus, particularembodiments of the wireless network may implement communicationstandards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution(LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standards; wireless localarea network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 standards; and/orany other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as theWorldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth,Z-Wave and/or ZigBee standards.

Network 706 may comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks,IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTNs), packet datanetworks, optical networks, wide-area networks (WANs), local areanetworks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks,wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks toenable communication between devices.

Network node 760 and WD 710 comprise various components described inmore detail below. These components work together in order to providenetwork node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providingwireless connections in a wireless network. In different embodiments,the wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wirelessnetworks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices,relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that mayfacilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signalswhether via wired or wireless connections.

As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured,arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with awireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in thewireless network to enable and/or provide wireless access to thewireless device and/or to perform other functions (e.g., administration)in the wireless network. Examples of network nodes include, but are notlimited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), basestations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs(eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)). Base stations may be categorized based onthe amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, theirtransmit power level) and may then also be referred to as femto basestations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro basestations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor nodecontrolling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (orall) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralizeddigital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to asRemote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not beintegrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of adistributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in adistributed antenna system (DAS). Yet further examples of network nodesinclude multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, networkcontrollers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base stationcontrollers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmissionpoints, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities(MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SONnodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs. As anotherexample, a network node may be a virtual network node as described inmore detail below. More generally, however, network nodes may representany suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged,and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with accessto the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless devicethat has accessed the wireless network.

In FIG. 7, network node 760 includes processing circuitry 770, devicereadable medium 780, interface 790, auxiliary equipment 784, powersource 786, power circuitry 787, and antenna 762. Although network node760 illustrated in the example wireless network of FIG. 7 may representa device that includes the illustrated combination of hardwarecomponents, other embodiments may comprise network nodes with differentcombinations of components. It is to be understood that a network nodecomprises any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed toperform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein.Moreover, while the components of network node 760 are depicted assingle boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multipleboxes, in practice, a network node may comprise multiple differentphysical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g.,device readable medium 780 may comprise multiple separate hard drives aswell as multiple RAM modules).

Similarly, network node 760 may be composed of multiple physicallyseparate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or aBTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their ownrespective components. In certain scenarios in which network node 760comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components),one or more of the separate components may be shared among severalnetwork nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeB's.In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in someinstances be considered a single separate network node. In someembodiments, network node 760 may be configured to support multipleradio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some componentsmay be duplicated (e.g., separate device readable medium 780 for thedifferent RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the sameantenna 762 may be shared by the RATs). Network node 760 may alsoinclude multiple sets of the various illustrated components fordifferent wireless technologies integrated into network node 760, suchas, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wirelesstechnologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into thesame or different chip or set of chips and other components withinnetwork node 760.

Processing circuitry 770 is configured to perform any determining,calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations)described herein as being provided by a network node. These operationsperformed by processing circuitry 770 may include processing informationobtained by processing circuitry 770 by, for example, converting theobtained information into other information, comparing the obtainedinformation or converted information to information stored in thenetwork node, and/or performing one or more operations based on theobtained information or converted information, and as a result of saidprocessing making a determination.

Processing circuitry 770 may comprise a combination of one or more of amicroprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit,digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, fieldprogrammable gate array, or any other suitable computing device,resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other networknode 760 components, such as device readable medium 780, network node760 functionality. For example, processing circuitry 770 may executeinstructions stored in device readable medium 780 or in memory withinprocessing circuitry 770. Such functionality may include providing anyof the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussedherein. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 770 may include asystem on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, processing circuitry 770 may include one or more ofradio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 772 and baseband processingcircuitry 774. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF) transceivercircuitry 772 and baseband processing circuitry 774 may be on separatechips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radio units anddigital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceivercircuitry 772 and baseband processing circuitry 774 may be on the samechip or set of chips, boards, or units

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality describedherein as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB or othersuch network device may be performed by processing circuitry 770executing instructions stored on device readable medium 780 or memorywithin processing circuitry 770. In alternative embodiments, some or allof the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry 770 withoutexecuting instructions stored on a separate or discrete device readablemedium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of those embodiments,whether executing instructions stored on a device readable storagemedium or not, processing circuitry 770 can be configured to perform thedescribed functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality arenot limited to processing circuitry 770 alone or to other components ofnetwork node 760, but are enjoyed by network node 760 as a whole, and/orby end users and the wireless network generally.

Device readable medium 780 may comprise any form of volatile ornon-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation,persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory,magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removablestorage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or aDigital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile,non-transitory device readable and/or computer-executable memory devicesthat store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used byprocessing circuitry 770. Device readable medium 780 may store anysuitable instructions, data or information, including a computerprogram, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules,code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executedby processing circuitry 770 and, utilized by network node 760. Devicereadable medium 780 may be used to store any calculations made byprocessing circuitry 770 and/or any data received via interface 790. Insome embodiments, processing circuitry 770 and device readable medium780 may be considered to be integrated.

Interface 790 is used in the wired or wireless communication ofsignalling and/or data between network node 760, network 706, and/or WDs710. As illustrated, interface 790 comprises port(s)/terminal(s) 794 tosend and receive data, for example to and from network 706 over a wiredconnection. Interface 790 also includes radio front end circuitry 792that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a part of, antenna762. Radio front end circuitry 792 comprises filters 798 and amplifiers796. Radio front end circuitry 792 may be connected to antenna 762 andprocessing circuitry 770. Radio front end circuitry may be configured tocondition signals communicated between antenna 762 and processingcircuitry 770. Radio front end circuitry 792 may receive digital datathat is to be sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wirelessconnection. Radio front end circuitry 792 may convert the digital datainto a radio signal having the appropriate channel and bandwidthparameters using a combination of filters 798 and/or amplifiers 796. Theradio signal may then be transmitted via antenna 762. Similarly, whenreceiving data, antenna 762 may collect radio signals which are thenconverted into digital data by radio front end circuitry 792. Thedigital data may be passed to processing circuitry 770. In otherembodiments, the interface may comprise different components and/ordifferent combinations of components.

In certain alternative embodiments, network node 760 may not includeseparate radio front end circuitry 792, instead, processing circuitry770 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected toantenna 762 without separate radio front end circuitry 792. Similarly,in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuitry 772 may beconsidered a part of interface 790. In still other embodiments,interface 790 may include one or more ports or terminals 794, radiofront end circuitry 792, and RF transceiver circuitry 772, as part of aradio unit (not shown), and interface 790 may communicate with basebandprocessing circuitry 774, which is part of a digital unit (not shown).

Antenna 762 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays,configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna 762 may becoupled to radio front end circuitry 790 and may be any type of antennacapable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. Insome embodiments, antenna 762 may comprise one or more omni-directional,sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receive radio signalsbetween, for example, 2 GHz and 66 GHz. An omni-directional antenna maybe used to transmit/receive radio signals in any direction, a sectorantenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signals from deviceswithin a particular area, and a panel antenna may be a line of sightantenna used to transmit/receive radio signals in a relatively straightline. In some instances, the use of more than one antenna may bereferred to as MIMO. In certain embodiments, antenna 762 may be separatefrom network node 760 and may be connectable to network node 760 throughan interface or port.

Antenna 762, interface 790, and/or processing circuitry 770 may beconfigured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtainingoperations described herein as being performed by a network node. Anyinformation, data and/or signals may be received from a wireless device,another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly,antenna 762, interface 790, and/or processing circuitry 770 may beconfigured to perform any transmitting operations described herein asbeing performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signalsmay be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node and/or anyother network equipment.

Power circuitry 787 may comprise, or be coupled to, power managementcircuitry and is configured to supply the components of network node 760with power for performing the functionality described herein. Powercircuitry 787 may receive power from power source 786. Power source 786and/or power circuitry 787 may be configured to provide power to thevarious components of network node 760 in a form suitable for therespective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed foreach respective component). Power source 786 may either be included in,or external to, power circuitry 787 and/or network node 760. Forexample, network node 760 may be connectable to an external power source(e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interface suchas an electrical cable, whereby the external power source supplies powerto power circuitry 787. As a further example, power source 786 maycomprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery packwhich is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry 787. Thebattery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices, may also beused.

Alternative embodiments of network node 760 may include additionalcomponents beyond those shown in FIG. 7 that may be responsible forproviding certain aspects of the network node's functionality, includingany of the functionality described herein and/or any functionalitynecessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example,network node 760 may include user interface equipment to allow input ofinformation into network node 760 and to allow output of informationfrom network node 760. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic,maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for network node760.

As used herein, wireless device (WD) refers to a device capable,configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly withnetwork nodes and/or other wireless devices. Unless otherwise noted, theterm WD may be used interchangeably herein with user equipment (UE).Communicating wirelessly may involve transmitting and/or receivingwireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infraredwaves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying informationthrough air. In some embodiments, a WD may be configured to transmitand/or receive information without direct human interaction. Forinstance, a WD may be designed to transmit information to a network on apredetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event,or in response to requests from the network. Examples of a WD include,but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone, avoice over IP (Vol P) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a desktopcomputer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless cameras, agaming console or device, a music storage device, a playback appliance,a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, atablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mountedequipment (LME), a smart device, a wireless customer-premise equipment(CPE). a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, etc. . . . A WD maysupport device-to-device (D2D) communication, for example byimplementing a 3GPP standard for sidelink communication,vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I),vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and may in this case be referred to as a D2Dcommunication device. As yet another specific example, in an Internet ofThings (IoT) scenario, a WD may represent a machine or other device thatperforms monitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results ofsuch monitoring and/or measurements to another WD and/or a network node.The WD may in this case be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which mayin a 3GPP context be referred to as an MTC device. As one particularexample, the WD may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internetof things (NB-IoT) standard. Particular examples of such machines ordevices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrialmachinery, or home or personal appliances (e.g. refrigerators,televisions, etc.) personal wearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers,etc.). In other scenarios, a WD may represent a vehicle or otherequipment that is capable of monitoring and/or reporting on itsoperational status or other functions associated with its operation. AWD as described above may represent the endpoint of a wirelessconnection, in which case the device may be referred to as a wirelessterminal. Furthermore, a WD as described above may be mobile, in whichcase it may also be referred to as a mobile device or a mobile terminal.

As illustrated, wireless device 710 includes antenna 711, interface 714,processing circuitry 720, device readable medium 730, user interfaceequipment 732, auxiliary equipment 734, power source 736 and powercircuitry 737. WD 710 may include multiple sets of one or more of theillustrated components for different wireless technologies supported byWD 710, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, WiMAX, orBluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. These wirelesstechnologies may be integrated into the same or different chips or setof chips as other components within WD 710.

Antenna 711 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays,configured to send and/or receive wireless signals, and is connected tointerface 714. In certain alternative embodiments, antenna 711 may beseparate from WD 710 and be connectable to WD 710 through an interfaceor port. Antenna 711, interface 714, and/or processing circuitry 720 maybe configured to perform any receiving or transmitting operationsdescribed herein as being performed by a WD. Any information, dataand/or signals may be received from a network node and/or another WD. Insome embodiments, radio front end circuitry and/or antenna 711 may beconsidered an interface.

As illustrated, interface 714 comprises radio front end circuitry 712and antenna 711. Radio front end circuitry 712 comprise one or morefilters 718 and amplifiers 716. Radio front end circuitry 714 isconnected to antenna 711 and processing circuitry 720, and is configuredto condition signals communicated between antenna 711 and processingcircuitry 720. Radio front end circuitry 712 may be coupled to or a partof antenna 711. In some embodiments, WD 710 may not include separateradio front end circuitry 712; rather, processing circuitry 720 maycomprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected to antenna 711.Similarly, in some embodiments, some or all of RF transceiver circuitry722 may be considered a part of interface 714. Radio front end circuitry712 may receive digital data that is to be sent out to other networknodes or WDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry 712may convert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriatechannel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 718and/or amplifiers 716. The radio signal may then be transmitted viaantenna 711. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 711 may collectradio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio frontend circuitry 712. The digital data may be passed to processingcircuitry 720. In other embodiments, the interface may comprisedifferent components and/or different combinations of components.

Processing circuitry 720 may comprise a combination of one or more of amicroprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit,digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, fieldprogrammable gate array, or any other suitable computing device,resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other WD 710components, such as device readable medium 730, WD 710 functionality.Such functionality may include providing any of the various wirelessfeatures or benefits discussed herein. For example, processing circuitry720 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium 730 or inmemory within processing circuitry 720 to provide the functionalitydisclosed herein.

As illustrated, processing circuitry 720 includes one or more of RFtransceiver circuitry 722, baseband processing circuitry 724, andapplication processing circuitry 726. In other embodiments, theprocessing circuitry may comprise different components and/or differentcombinations of components. In certain embodiments processing circuitry720 of WD 710 may comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, RF transceivercircuitry 722, baseband processing circuitry 724, and applicationprocessing circuitry 726 may be on separate chips or sets of chips. Inalternative embodiments, part or all of baseband processing circuitry724 and application processing circuitry 726 may be combined into onechip or set of chips, and RF transceiver circuitry 722 may be on aseparate chip or set of chips. In still alternative embodiments, part orall of RF transceiver circuitry 722 and baseband processing circuitry724 may be on the same chip or set of chips, and application processingcircuitry 726 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In yet otheralternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 722,baseband processing circuitry 724, and application processing circuitry726 may be combined in the same chip or set of chips. In someembodiments, RF transceiver circuitry 722 may be a part of interface714. RF transceiver circuitry 722 may condition RF signals forprocessing circuitry 720.

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality describedherein as being performed by a WD may be provided by processingcircuitry 720 executing instructions stored on device readable medium730, which in certain embodiments may be a computer-readable storagemedium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality maybe provided by processing circuitry 720 without executing instructionsstored on a separate or discrete device readable storage medium, such asin a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whetherexecuting instructions stored on a device readable storage medium ornot, processing circuitry 720 can be configured to perform the describedfunctionality. The benefits provided by such functionality are notlimited to processing circuitry 720 alone or to other components of WD710, but are enjoyed by WD 710 as a whole, and/or by end users and thewireless network generally.

Processing circuitry 720 may be configured to perform any determining,calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations)described herein as being performed by a WD. These operations, asperformed by processing circuitry 720, may include processinginformation obtained by processing circuitry 720 by, for example,converting the obtained information into other information, comparingthe obtained information or converted information to information storedby WD 710, and/or performing one or more operations based on theobtained information or converted information, and as a result of saidprocessing making a determination.

Device readable medium 730 may be operable to store a computer program,software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code,tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed byprocessing circuitry 720. Device readable medium 730 may includecomputer memory (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read Only Memory(ROM)), mass storage media (e.g., a hard disk), removable storage media(e.g., a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or anyother volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/orcomputer executable memory devices that store information, data, and/orinstructions that may be used by processing circuitry 720. In someembodiments, processing circuitry 720 and device readable medium 730 maybe considered to be integrated.

User interface equipment 732 may provide components that allow for ahuman user to interact with WD 710. Such interaction may be of manyforms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc. User interface equipment732 may be operable to produce output to the user and to allow the userto provide input to WD 710. The type of interaction may vary dependingon the type of user interface equipment 732 installed in WD 710. Forexample, if WD 710 is a smart phone, the interaction may be via a touchscreen; if WD 710 is a smart meter, the interaction may be through ascreen that provides usage (e.g., the number of gallons used) or aspeaker that provides an audible alert (e.g., if smoke is detected).User interface equipment 732 may include input interfaces, devices andcircuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. User interfaceequipment 732 is configured to allow input of information into WD 710,and is connected to processing circuitry 720 to allow processingcircuitry 720 to process the input information. User interface equipment732 may include, for example, a microphone, a proximity or other sensor,keys/buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a USB port, or otherinput circuitry. User interface equipment 732 is also configured toallow output of information from WD 710, and to allow processingcircuitry 720 to output information from WD 710. User interfaceequipment 732 may include, for example, a speaker, a display, vibratingcircuitry, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other output circuitry.Using one or more input and output interfaces, devices, and circuits, ofuser interface equipment 732, WD 710 may communicate with end usersand/or the wireless network, and allow them to benefit from thefunctionality described herein.

Auxiliary equipment 734 is operable to provide more specificfunctionality which may not be generally performed by WDs. This maycomprise specialized sensors for doing measurements for variouspurposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wiredcommunications etc. The inclusion and type of components of auxiliaryequipment 734 may vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.

Power source 736 may, in some embodiments, be in the form of a batteryor battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external powersource (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic devices or powercells, may also be used. WD 710 may further comprise power circuitry 737for delivering power from power source 736 to the various parts of WD710 which need power from power source 736 to carry out anyfunctionality described or indicated herein. Power circuitry 737 may incertain embodiments comprise power management circuitry. Power circuitry737 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power froman external power source; in which case WD 710 may be connectable to theexternal power source (such as an electricity outlet) via inputcircuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Powercircuitry 737 may also in certain embodiments be operable to deliverpower from an external power source to power source 736. This may be,for example, for the charging of power source 736. Power circuitry 737may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to thepower from power source 736 to make the power suitable for therespective components of WD 710 to which power is supplied.

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a UE in accordance with variousaspects described herein. As used herein, a user equipment or UE may notnecessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/oroperates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device thatis intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which maynot, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific humanuser (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE mayrepresent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, anend user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit ofa user (e.g., a smart power meter). UE 8200 may be any UE identified bythe 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a NB-IoT UE,a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.UE 800, as illustrated in FIG. 8, is one example of a WD configured forcommunication in accordance with one or more communication standardspromulgated by the 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as3GPP's GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or 5G standards. As mentioned previously, theterm WD and UE may be used interchangeable. Accordingly, although FIG. 8is a UE, the components discussed herein are equally applicable to a WD,and vice-versa.

In FIG. 8, UE 800 includes processing circuitry 801 that is operativelycoupled to input/output interface 805, radio frequency (RF) interface809, network connection interface 811, memory 815 including randomaccess memory (RAM) 817, read-only memory (ROM) 819, and storage medium821 or the like, communication subsystem 831, power source 833, and/orany other component, or any combination thereof. Storage medium 821includes operating system 823, application program 825, and data 827. Inother embodiments, storage medium 821 may include other similar types ofinformation. Certain UEs may utilize all of the components shown in FIG.8, or only a subset of the components. The level of integration betweenthe components may vary from one UE to another UE. Further, certain UEsmay contain multiple instances of a component, such as multipleprocessors, memories, transceivers, transmitters, receivers, etc.

In FIG. 8, processing circuitry 801 may be configured to processcomputer instructions and data. Processing circuitry 801 may beconfigured to implement any sequential state machine operative toexecute machine instructions stored as machine-readable computerprograms in the memory, such as one or more hardware-implemented statemachines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.); programmable logictogether with appropriate firmware; one or more stored program,general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combinationof the above. For example, the processing circuitry 801 may include twocentral processing units (CPUs). Data may be information in a formsuitable for use by a computer.

In the depicted embodiment, input/output interface 805 may be configuredto provide a communication interface to an input device, output device,or input and output device. UE 800 may be configured to use an outputdevice via input/output interface 805. An output device may use the sametype of interface port as an input device. For example, a USB port maybe used to provide input to and output from UE 800. The output devicemay be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, a monitor, aprinter, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another output device, orany combination thereof. UE 800 may be configured to use an input devicevia input/output interface 805 to allow a user to capture informationinto UE 800. The input device may include a touch-sensitive orpresence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, a digitalvideo camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, a mouse, atrackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, a smartcard,and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include a capacitive orresistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. A sensor may be, forinstance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tilt sensor, a force sensor,a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximity sensor, another likesensor, or any combination thereof. For example, the input device may bean accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digital camera, a microphone, and anoptical sensor.

In FIG. 8, RF interface 809 may be configured to provide a communicationinterface to RF components such as a transmitter, a receiver, and anantenna. Network connection interface 811 may be configured to provide acommunication interface to network 843 a. Network 843 a may encompasswired and/or wireless networks such as a local-area network (LAN), awide-area network (WAN), a computer network, a wireless network, atelecommunications network, another like network or any combinationthereof. For example, network 843 a may comprise a Wi-Fi network.Network connection interface 811 may be configured to include a receiverand a transmitter interface used to communicate with one or more otherdevices over a communication network according to one or morecommunication protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, SONET, ATM, or thelike. Network connection interface 811 may implement receiver andtransmitter functionality appropriate to the communication network links(e.g., optical, electrical, and the like). The transmitter and receiverfunctions may share circuit components, software or firmware, oralternatively may be implemented separately.

RAM 817 may be configured to interface via bus 802 to processingcircuitry 801 to provide storage or caching of data or computerinstructions during the execution of software programs such as theoperating system, application programs, and device drivers. ROM 819 maybe configured to provide computer instructions or data to processingcircuitry 801. For example, ROM 819 may be configured to store invariantlow-level system code or data for basic system functions such as basicinput and output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokes from akeyboard that are stored in a non-volatile memory. Storage medium 821may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmableread-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magneticdisks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, orflash drives. In one example, storage medium 821 may be configured toinclude operating system 823, application program 825 such as a webbrowser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application,and data file 827. Storage medium 821 may store, for use by UE 800, anyof a variety of various operating systems or combinations of operatingsystems.

Storage medium 821 may be configured to include a number of physicaldrive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), floppydisk drive, flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive,thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc(HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray opticaldisc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive,external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcardmemory such as a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity(SIM/RUIM) module, other memory, or any combination thereof. Storagemedium 821 may allow UE 800 to access computer-executable instructions,application programs or the like, stored on transitory or non-transitorymemory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. An article ofmanufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system may betangibly embodied in storage medium 821, which may comprise a devicereadable medium.

In FIG. 8, processing circuitry 801 may be configured to communicatewith network 843 b using communication subsystem 831. Network 843 a andnetwork 843 b may be the same network or networks or different networkor networks. Communication subsystem 831 may be configured to includeone or more transceivers used to communicate with network 843 b. Forexample, communication subsystem 831 may be configured to include one ormore transceivers used to communicate with one or more remotetransceivers of another device capable of wireless communication such asanother WD, UE, or base station of a radio access network (RAN)according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 802.11,CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, or the like. Each transceiver mayinclude transmitter 833 and/or receiver 835 to implement transmitter orreceiver functionality, respectively, appropriate to the RAN links(e.g., frequency allocations and the like). Further, transmitter 833 andreceiver 835 of each transceiver may share circuit components, softwareor firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.

In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions ofcommunication subsystem 831 may include data communication, voicecommunication, multimedia communication, short-range communications suchas Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communicationsuch as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine alocation, another like communication function, or any combinationthereof. For example, communication subsystem 831 may include cellularcommunication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPScommunication. Network 843 b may encompass wired and/or wirelessnetworks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN),a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network,another like network or any combination thereof. For example, network843 b may be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and/or a near-fieldnetwork. Power source 813 may be configured to provide alternatingcurrent (AC) or direct current (DC) power to components of UE 800.

The features, benefits and/or functions described herein may beimplemented in one of the components of UE 800 or partitioned acrossmultiple components of UE 800. Further, the features, benefits, and/orfunctions described herein may be implemented in any combination ofhardware, software or firmware. In one example, communication subsystem831 may be configured to include any of the components described herein.Further, processing circuitry 801 may be configured to communicate withany of such components over bus 802. In another example, any of suchcomponents may be represented by program instructions stored in memorythat when executed by processing circuitry 801 perform the correspondingfunctions described herein. In another example, the functionality of anyof such components may be partitioned between processing circuitry 801and communication subsystem 831. In another example, thenon-computationally intensive functions of any of such components may beimplemented in software or firmware and the computationally intensivefunctions may be implemented in hardware.

FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualizationenvironment 900 in which functions implemented by some embodiments maybe virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creatingvirtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may includevirtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networkingresources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to a node(e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) orto a device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device or any other type ofcommunication device) or components thereof and relates to animplementation in which at least a portion of the functionality isimplemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or moreapplications, components, functions, virtual machines or containersexecuting on one or more physical processing nodes in one or morenetworks).

In some embodiments, some or all of the functions described herein maybe implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtualmachines implemented in one or more virtual environments 900 hosted byone or more of hardware nodes 930. Further, in embodiments in which thevirtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radioconnectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node may beentirely virtualized.

The functions may be implemented by one or more applications 920 (whichmay alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances,network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.)operative to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefitsof some of the embodiments disclosed herein. Applications 920 are run invirtualization environment 900 which provides hardware 930 comprisingprocessing circuitry 960 and memory 990. Memory 990 containsinstructions 995 executable by processing circuitry 960 wherebyapplication 920 is operative to provide one or more of the features,benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.

Virtualization environment 900, comprises general-purpose orspecial-purpose network hardware devices 930 comprising a set of one ormore processors or processing circuitry 960, which may be commercialoff-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitryincluding digital or analog hardware components or special purposeprocessors. Each hardware device may comprise memory 990-1 which may benon-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions 995 orsoftware executed by processing circuitry 960. Each hardware device maycomprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs) 970, alsoknown as network interface cards, which include physical networkinterface 980. Each hardware device may also include non-transitory,persistent, machine-readable storage media 990-2 having stored thereinsoftware 995 and/or instructions executable by processing circuitry 960.Software 995 may include any type of software including software forinstantiating one or more virtualization layers 950 (also referred to ashypervisors), software to execute virtual machines 940 as well assoftware allowing it to execute functions, features and/or benefitsdescribed in relation with some embodiments described herein.

Virtual machines 940, comprise virtual processing, virtual memory,virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by acorresponding virtualization layer 950 or hypervisor. Differentembodiments of the instance of virtual appliance 920 may be implementedon one or more of virtual machines 940, and the implementations may bemade in different ways.

During operation, processing circuitry 960 executes software 995 toinstantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer 950, which maysometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM).Virtualization layer 950 may present a virtual operating platform thatappears like networking hardware to virtual machine 940.

As shown in FIG. 9, hardware 930 may be a standalone network node withgeneric or specific components. Hardware 930 may comprise antenna 9225and may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively,hardware 930 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such asin a data center or customer premise equipment (CPE)) where manyhardware nodes work together and are managed via management andorchestration (MANO) 9100, which, among others, oversees lifecyclemanagement of applications 920.

Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to asnetwork function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidatemany network equipment types onto industry standard high volume serverhardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be locatedin data centers, and customer premise equipment.

In the context of NFV, virtual machine 940 may be a softwareimplementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they wereexecuting on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of virtualmachines 940, and that part of hardware 930 that executes that virtualmachine, be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine and/orhardware shared by that virtual machine with others of the virtualmachines 940, forms a separate virtual network elements (VNE).

Still in the context of NFV, Virtual Network Function (VNF) isresponsible for handling specific network functions that run in one ormore virtual machines 940 on top of hardware networking infrastructure930 and corresponds to application 920 in FIG. 9.

In some embodiments, one or more radio units 9200 that each include oneor more transmitters 9220 and one or more receivers 9210 may be coupledto one or more antennas 9225. Radio units 9200 may communicate directlywith hardware nodes 930 via one or more appropriate network interfacesand may be used in combination with the virtual components to provide avirtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio access node or abase station.

In some embodiments, some signalling can be effected with the use ofcontrol system 9230 which may alternatively be used for communicationbetween the hardware nodes 930 and radio units 9200.

With reference to FIG. 10, in accordance with an embodiment, acommunication system includes telecommunication network 1010, such as a3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises access network 1011, such asa radio access network, and core network 1014. Access network 1011comprises a plurality of base stations 1012 a, 1012 b, 1012 c, such asNBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defininga corresponding coverage area 1013 a, 1013 b, 1013 c. Each base station1012 a, 1012 b, 1012 c is connectable to core network 1014 over a wiredor wireless connection 1015. A first UE 1091 located in coverage area1013 c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, thecorresponding base station 1012 c. A second UE 1092 in coverage area1013 a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 1012a. While a plurality of UEs 1091, 1092 are illustrated in this example,the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where asole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to thecorresponding base station 1012.

Telecommunication network 1010 is itself connected to host computer1030, which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of astandalone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server oras processing resources in a server farm. Host computer 1030 may beunder the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operatedby the service provider or on behalf of the service provider.Connections 1021 and 1022 between telecommunication network 1010 andhost computer 1030 may extend directly from core network 1014 to hostcomputer 1030 or may go via an optional intermediate network 1020.Intermediate network 1020 may be one of, or a combination of more thanone of, a public, private or hosted network; intermediate network 1020,if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular,intermediate network 1020 may comprise two or more sub-networks (notshown).

The communication system of FIG. 10 as a whole enables connectivitybetween the connected UEs 1091, 1092 and host computer 1030. Theconnectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1050.Host computer 1030 and the connected UEs 1091, 1092 are configured tocommunicate data and/or signaling via OTT connection 1050, using accessnetwork 1011, core network 1014, any intermediate network 1020 andpossible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. OTTconnection 1050 may be transparent in the sense that the participatingcommunication devices through which OTT connection 1050 passes areunaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example,base station 1012 may not or need not be informed about the past routingof an incoming downlink communication with data originating from hostcomputer 1030 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE1091. Similarly, base station 1012 need not be aware of the futurerouting of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE 1091towards the host computer 1030.

Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE,base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphswill now be described with reference to FIG. 11. In communication system1100, host computer 1110 comprises hardware 1115 including communicationinterface 1116 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wirelessconnection with an interface of a different communication device ofcommunication system 1100. Host computer 1110 further comprisesprocessing circuitry 1118, which may have storage and/or processingcapabilities. In particular, processing circuitry 1118 may comprise oneor more programmable processors, application-specific integratedcircuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (notshown) adapted to execute instructions. Host computer 1110 furthercomprises software 1111, which is stored in or accessible by hostcomputer 1110 and executable by processing circuitry 1118. Software 1111includes host application 1112. Host application 1112 may be operable toprovide a service to a remote user, such as UE 1130 connecting via OTTconnection 1150 terminating at UE 1130 and host computer 1110. Inproviding the service to the remote user, host application 1112 mayprovide user data which is transmitted using OTT connection 1150.

Communication system 1100 further includes base station 1120 provided ina telecommunication system and comprising hardware 1125 enabling it tocommunicate with host computer 1110 and with UE 1130. Hardware 1125 mayinclude communication interface 1126 for setting up and maintaining awired or wireless connection with an interface of a differentcommunication device of communication system 1100, as well as radiointerface 1127 for setting up and maintaining at least wirelessconnection 1170 with UE 1130 located in a coverage area (not shown inFIG. 11) served by base station 1120. Communication interface 1126 maybe configured to facilitate connection 1160 to host computer 1110.Connection 1160 may be direct or it may pass through a core network (notshown in FIG. 11) of the telecommunication system and/or through one ormore intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In theembodiment shown, hardware 1125 of base station 1120 further includesprocessing circuitry 1128, which may comprise one or more programmableprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmablegate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to executeinstructions. Base station 1120 further has software 1121 storedinternally or accessible via an external connection.

Communication system 1100 further includes UE 1130 already referred to.Its hardware 1135 may include radio interface 1137 configured to set upand maintain wireless connection 1170 with a base station serving acoverage area in which UE 1130 is currently located. Hardware 1135 of UE1130 further includes processing circuitry 1138, which may comprise oneor more programmable processors, application-specific integratedcircuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (notshown) adapted to execute instructions. UE 1130 further comprisessoftware 1131, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1130 andexecutable by processing circuitry 1138. Software 1131 includes clientapplication 1132. Client application 1132 may be operable to provide aservice to a human or non-human user via UE 1130, with the support ofhost computer 1110. In host computer 1110, an executing host application1112 may communicate with the executing client application 1132 via OTTconnection 1150 terminating at UE 1130 and host computer 1110. Inproviding the service to the user, client application 1132 may receiverequest data from host application 1112 and provide user data inresponse to the request data. OTT connection 1150 may transfer both therequest data and the user data. Client application 1132 may interactwith the user to generate the user data that it provides.

It is noted that host computer 1110, base station 1120 and UE 1130illustrated in FIG. 11 may be similar or identical to host computer1030, one of base stations 1012 a, 1012 b, 1012 c and one of UEs 1091,1092 of FIG. 10, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings ofthese entities may be as shown in FIG. 11 and independently, thesurrounding network topology may be that of FIG. 10.

In FIG. 11, OTT connection 1150 has been drawn abstractly to illustratethe communication between host computer 1110 and UE 1130 via basestation 1120, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices andthe precise routing of messages via these devices. Networkinfrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured tohide from UE 1130 or from the service provider operating host computer1110, or both. While OTT connection 1150 is active, the networkinfrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamicallychanges the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing considerationor reconfiguration of the network).

Wireless connection 1170 between UE 1130 and base station 1120 is inaccordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughoutthis disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve theperformance of OTT services provided to UE 1130 using OTT connection1150, in which wireless connection 1170 forms the last segment. Moreprecisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve thetransmission of information from the wireless device to the network nodeand thereby provide benefits such as reduced signaling.

A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoringdata rate, latency and other factors on which the one or moreembodiments improve. There may further be an optional networkfunctionality for reconfiguring OTT connection 1150 between hostcomputer 1110 and UE 1130, in response to variations in the measurementresults. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality forreconfiguring OTT connection 1150 may be implemented in software 1111and hardware 1115 of host computer 1110 or in software 1131 and hardware1135 of UE 1130, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) may bedeployed in or in association with communication devices through whichOTT connection 1150 passes; the sensors may participate in themeasurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantitiesexemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities fromwhich software 1111, 1131 may compute or estimate the monitoredquantities. The reconfiguring of OTT connection 1150 may include messageformat, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; thereconfiguring need not affect base station 1120, and it may be unknownor imperceptible to base station 1120. Such procedures andfunctionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certainembodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signalingfacilitating host computer 1110's measurements of throughput,propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may beimplemented in that software 1111 and 1131 causes messages to betransmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using OTTconnection 1150 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in acommunication system, in accordance with one embodiment. Thecommunication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UEwhich may be those described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 12will be included in this section. In step 1210, the host computerprovides user data. In substep 1211 (which may be optional) of step1210, the host computer provides the user data by executing a hostapplication. In step 1220, the host computer initiates a transmissioncarrying the user data to the UE. In step 1230 (which may be optional),the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried inthe transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance withthe teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.In step 1240 (which may also be optional), the UE executes a clientapplication associated with the host application executed by the hostcomputer.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in acommunication system, in accordance with one embodiment. Thecommunication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UEwhich may be those described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 13will be included in this section. In step 1310 of the method, the hostcomputer provides user data. In an optional substep (not shown) the hostcomputer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step1320, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user datato the UE. The transmission may pass via the base station, in accordancewith the teachings of the embodiments described throughout thisdisclosure. In step 1330 (which may be optional), the UE receives theuser data carried in the transmission.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in acommunication system, in accordance with one embodiment. Thecommunication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UEwhich may be those described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 14will be included in this section. In step 1410 (which may be optional),the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionallyor alternatively, in step 1420, the UE provides user data. In substep1421 (which may be optional) of step 1420, the UE provides the user databy executing a client application. In substep 1411 (which may beoptional) of step 1410, the UE executes a client application whichprovides the user data in reaction to the received input data providedby the host computer. In providing the user data, the executed clientapplication may further consider user input received from the user.Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided,the UE initiates, in substep 1430 (which may be optional), transmissionof the user data to the host computer. In step 1440 of the method, thehost computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, inaccordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughoutthis disclosure.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in acommunication system, in accordance with one embodiment. Thecommunication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UEwhich may be those described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 15will be included in this section. In step 1510 (which may be optional),in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughoutthis disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. Instep 1520 (which may be optional), the base station initiatestransmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step1530 (which may be optional), the host computer receives the user datacarried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

Any appropriate steps, methods, features, functions, or benefitsdisclosed herein may be performed through one or more functional unitsor modules of one or more virtual apparatuses. Each virtual apparatusmay comprise a number of these functional units. These functional unitsmay be implemented via processing circuitry, which may include one ormore microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digitalhardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs),special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitrymay be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which mayinclude one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory (RAM), cache memory, flash memory devices, opticalstorage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes programinstructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or datacommunications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one ormore of the techniques described herein. In some implementations, theprocessing circuitry may be used to cause the respective functional unitto perform corresponding functions according one or more embodiments ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 16 depicts a method in accordance with particular embodiments, themethod begins at step 1602 with receiving an indication of one or moreprotocols that are supported by the network for transmission ofcapability information. In step 1604, the method comprises responsive tothe wireless device supporting at least one of the one or more protocolsfor transmission of capability information, selecting a first protocolfrom the at least one of the one or more protocols. In step 1606 themethod comprises transmitting capability information associated with thewireless device to the base station according to the first protocol. Themethod may be performed by a wireless device for transmitting capabilityinformation to a base station in a network.

FIG. 17 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 1700 in awireless network (for example, the wireless network shown in FIG. 7).The apparatus may be implemented in a wireless device or network node(e.g., wireless device 710 or network node 760 shown in FIG. 7).Apparatus 1700 is operable to carry out the example method describedwith reference to FIG. 16 and possibly any other processes or methodsdisclosed herein. It is also to be understood that the method of FIG. 16is not necessarily carried out solely by apparatus 1700. At least someoperations of the method can be performed by one or more other entities.

Virtual Apparatus 1700 may comprise processing circuitry, which mayinclude one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as otherdigital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs),special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitrymay be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which mayinclude one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, opticalstorage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes programinstructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or datacommunications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one ormore of the techniques described herein, in several embodiments. In someimplementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause theReceiving unit 1702, Selecting unit 1704, and Transmitting unit 1706 andany other suitable units of apparatus 1700 to perform correspondingfunctions according one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

As illustrated in FIG. 17, apparatus 1700 includes Receiving unit 1702,Selecting unit 1704, and Transmitting Unit 1706. Receiving unit 1702 isconfigured to receive an indication of one or more protocols that aresupported by the network for transmission of capability information.Selecting Unit 1704 is configured to responsive to the wireless devicesupporting at least one of the one or more protocols for transmission ofcapability information, select a first protocol from the at least one ofthe one or more protocols. Transmitting Unit 1706 is configured totransmit capability information associated with the wireless device tothe base station according to the first protocol.

FIG. 18 depicts a method in accordance with particular embodiments, themethod begins at step 1802 with initiating transmission of an indicationof one or more protocols that are supported by the network fortransmission of capability information. In step 1804, the methodcomprises responsive to the wireless device supporting at least one ofthe one or more protocols, receiving capability information associatedwith the wireless device according to a first protocol of the one ormore protocols. The method may be performed by a base station, or may beperformed by another node in the network.

FIG. 19 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 1900 in awireless network (for example, the wireless network shown in FIG. 7).The apparatus may be implemented in a wireless device or network node(e.g., wireless device 710 or network node 760 shown in FIG. 7).Apparatus 1900 is operable to carry out the example method describedwith reference to FIG. 18 and possibly any other processes or methodsdisclosed herein. It is also to be understood that the method of FIG. 18is not necessarily carried out solely by apparatus 1900. At least someoperations of the method can be performed by one or more other entities.

Virtual Apparatus 1900 may comprise processing circuitry, which mayinclude one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as otherdigital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs),special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitrymay be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which mayinclude one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, opticalstorage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes programinstructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or datacommunications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one ormore of the techniques described herein, in several embodiments. In someimplementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause theTransmitting unit 1902 and Receiving unit 1904 and any other suitableunits of apparatus 1900 to perform corresponding functions according oneor more embodiments of the present disclosure.

As illustrated in FIG. 19, apparatus 1900 includes Transmitting unit1902 and Receiving unit 1904. Transmitting unit 1902 is configured toinitiate transmission of an indication of one or more protocols that aresupported by the network for transmission of capability information.Receiving Unit 1904 is configured to responsive to the wireless devicesupporting at least one of the one or more protocols, receivingcapability information associated with the wireless device according toa first protocol of the one or more protocols.

The term unit may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics,electrical devices and/or electronic devices and may include, forexample, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules,processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices,computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks,procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and soon, as such as those that are described herein.

The following numbered statements provide additional information oncertain aspects of embodiments:

-   -   1. A method performed by a wireless device for transmitting        capability information to a base station in a network, the        method comprising:        -   receiving an indication of one or more protocols that are            supported by the network for transmission of capability            information;        -   responsive to the wireless device supporting at least one of            the one or more protocols for transmission of capability            information,            -   selecting a first protocol from the at least one of the                one or more protocols, and            -   transmitting capability information associated with the                wireless device to the base station according to the                first protocol.    -   2. The method of statement 1 wherein,        -   the indication identifies a priority associated with each of            the one or more protocols, and        -   the step of selecting comprises selecting the first protocol            by selecting a protocol associated with a highest priority            from the at least one of the one or more protocols supported            by the wireless device.    -   3. The method of statement 2 wherein,        -   the indication identifies a priority associated with each of            the one or more protocols by listing the one or more            protocols in order of priority.    -   4. The method of statement 2 wherein,        -   the indication identifies a priority associated with each of            the one or more protocols by associating each of the one or            more protocols with an explicit priority value.    -   5. The method of any preceding statement wherein,        -   responsive to the wireless device not supporting at least            one of the one or more protocols, selecting a legacy            protocol for transmission of capability information, and            transmitting the capability information associated with the            wireless device to the base station according to the legacy            protocol.    -   6. The method of any preceding statement wherein the step of        transmitting the capability information associated with the        wireless device to the base station according to the first        protocol further comprises transmitting the capability        information with an indication of the first protocol.    -   7. The method of any preceding statement wherein the indication        identifies a filter associated with each of the one or more        protocols respectively, wherein the filter indicates which        capability information the wireless device should transmit        according to the associated protocol.    -   8. The method of statement 7 wherein the capability information        associated with the wireless device comprises capability        information indicated by a first filter associated with the        first protocol.    -   9. The method of any statement embodiment, wherein the one or        more protocols comprises one or more of: a protocol utilizing        compression, a protocol utilizing segmentation, and a        combination protocol utilizing both compression and        segmentation.    -   10. The method of any preceding statement wherein the indication        of the one or more protocols is received from the base station        as part of a request for capability information.    -   11. The method of any preceding statement wherein the indication        identifies a size indication associated with each of the one or        more protocols respectively, wherein the size indicator        indicates one of: a maximum size of a message to be transmitted        by the wireless device comprising the capability information, or        a number of messages to be transmitted by the wireless device to        transmit the capability information.    -   12. The method of any previous statement wherein the one or more        protocols comprises a protocol utilizing compression, and        wherein the indication identifies a respective preference        associated with each of a plurality of configuration options        available for the protocol utilizing compression.    -   13. The method of any of the previous statements, further        comprising:        -   providing user data; and        -   forwarding the user data to a host computer via the            transmission to the base station.    -   14. A method performed by a network node for controlling the        receipt of capability information from a wireless device at a        base station, the method comprising:        -   initiating transmission of an indication of one or more            protocols that are supported by the network for transmission            of capability information;        -   responsive to the wireless device supporting at least one of            the one or more protocols, receiving capability information            associated with the wireless device according to a first            protocol of the one or more protocols.    -   15. The method of statement 14 wherein,        -   the indication identifies a priority associated with each of            the one or more protocols.    -   16. The method of statement 15 wherein,        -   the indication identifies a priority associated with each of            the one or more protocols by listing the one or more            protocols in order of priority.    -   17. The method of statement 14 wherein,        -   the indication identifies a priority associated with each of            the one or more protocols by associating each of the one or            more protocols with an explicit priority value.    -   18. The method of any one of statements 14 to 17 wherein,        -   responsive to the wireless device not supporting at least            one of the one or more protocols, receiving the capability            information associated with the wireless device according to            a legacy protocol.    -   19. The method of any one of statements 14 to 17 wherein the        step of receiving the capability information associated with the        wireless device further comprises receiving the capability        information with an indication of the first protocol.    -   20. The method of any one of statements 14 to 19 wherein the        indication identifies a filter associated with each of the one        or more protocols respectively, wherein the filter indicates        which capability information the wireless device should transmit        according to the associated protocol.    -   21. The method of statement 20 wherein the capability        information associated with the wireless device comprises        capability information indicated by a first filter associated        with the first protocol.    -   22. The method of any one of statements 14 to 21 wherein the one        or more protocols comprises one or more of: a protocol utilizing        compression, a protocol utilizing segmentation, and a        combination protocol utilizing both compression and        segmentation.    -   23. The method of any one of statements 14 to 22 wherein the        indication of the one or more protocols is transmitted as part        of a request for capability information from the wireless        device.    -   24. The method of any one of statements 14 to 23 wherein the        indication identifies a size indication associated with one of        the one or more protocols respectively, wherein the size        indicator indicates one of: a maximum size of a message to be        transmitted by the wireless device comprising the capability        information, or a number of messages to be transmitted by the        wireless device to transmit the capability information.    -   25. The method of any one of statements 14 to 24 wherein the one        or more protocols comprises a protocol utilizing compression,        and wherein the indication identified a preference associated        with a plurality of configuration options available for the        protocol utilizing compression.    -   26. The method of any of the previous statements, further        comprising:        -   obtaining user data; and        -   forwarding the user data to a host computer or a wireless            device.    -   27. A wireless device for transmitting capability information to        a base station, the wireless device comprising:        -   processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps            of any of statements 1 to 13; and        -   power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the            wireless device.    -   28. A base station for receiving capability information from a        wireless device, the base station comprising:        -   processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps            of any of statements 14 to 26;        -   power supply circuitry configured to supply power to the            base station.    -   29. A user equipment (UE) for transmitting capability        information to a base station, the UE comprising:        -   an antenna configured to send and receive wireless signals;        -   radio front-end circuitry connected to the antenna and to            processing circuitry, and configured to condition signals            communicated between the antenna and the processing            circuitry;        -   the processing circuitry being configured to perform any of            the steps of any of statements 1 to 13;        -   an input interface connected to the processing circuitry and            configured to allow input of information into the UE to be            processed by the processing circuitry;        -   an output interface connected to the processing circuitry            and configured to output information from the UE that has            been processed by the processing circuitry; and        -   a battery connected to the processing circuitry and            configured to supply power to the UE.    -   30. A communication system including a host computer comprising:        -   processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and        -   a communication interface configured to forward the user            data to a cellular network for transmission to a user            equipment (UE),        -   wherein the cellular network comprises a base station having            a radio interface and processing circuitry, the base            station's processing circuitry configured to perform any of            the steps of any of statements 14 to 26.    -   31. The communication system of statement 30 further including        the base station.    -   32. The communication system of any of statements 30 and 31,        further including the UE, wherein the UE is configured to        communicate with the base station.    -   33. The communication system of any of statements 30 to 32,        wherein:        -   the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured            to execute a host application, thereby providing the user            data; and        -   the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute            a client application associated with the host application.    -   34. A method implemented in a communication system including a        host computer, a base station and a user equipment (UE), the        method comprising:        -   at the host computer, providing user data; and        -   at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the            user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the            base station, wherein the base station performs any of the            steps of any of statements 14 to 26.    -   35. The method of statement 34, further comprising, at the base        station, transmitting the user data.    -   36. The method of any of statements 34 and 35, wherein the user        data is provided at the host computer by executing a host        application, the method further comprising, at the UE, executing        a client application associated with the host application.    -   37. A user equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a base        station, the UE comprising a radio interface and processing        circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of any of        statements 34 to 36.    -   38. A communication system including a host computer comprising:        -   processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and        -   a communication interface configured to forward user data to            a cellular network for transmission to a user equipment            (UE),        -   wherein the UE comprises a radio interface and processing            circuitry, the UE's components configured to perform any of            the steps of any of statements 1 to 13.    -   39. The communication system of statement 38, wherein the        cellular network further includes a base station configured to        communicate with the UE.    -   40. The communication system of any of statements 38 and 39,        wherein:        -   the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured            to execute a host application, thereby providing the user            data; and        -   the UE's processing circuitry is configured to execute a            client application associated with the host application.    -   41. A method implemented in a communication system including a        host computer, a base station and a user equipment (UE), the        method comprising:        -   at the host computer, providing user data; and        -   at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the            user data to the UE via a cellular network comprising the            base station, wherein the UE performs any of the steps of            any of statements 1 to 13.    -   42. The method of statement 41, further comprising at the UE,        receiving the user data from the base station.    -   43. A communication system including a host computer comprising:        -   communication interface configured to receive user data            originating from a transmission from a user equipment (UE)            to a base station,        -   wherein the UE comprises a radio interface and processing            circuitry, the UE's processing circuitry configured to            perform any of the steps of any of statements 1 to 13.    -   44. The communication system of statement 43, further including        the UE.    -   45. The communication system of any of statements 43 and 44,        further including the base station, wherein the base station        comprises a radio interface configured to communicate with the        UE and a communication interface configured to forward to the        host computer the user data carried by a transmission from the        UE to the base station.    -   46. The communication system of any of statements 43 to 45,        wherein:        -   the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured            to execute a host application; and        -   the UE's processing circuitry is configured to execute a            client application associated with the host application,            thereby providing the user data.    -   47. The communication system of any of statements 43 to 46,        wherein:        -   the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured            to execute a host application, thereby providing request            data; and        -   the UE's processing circuitry is configured to execute a            client application associated with the host application,            thereby providing the user data in response to the request            data.    -   48. A method implemented in a communication system including a        host computer, a base station and a user equipment (UE), the        method comprising:        -   at the host computer, receiving user data transmitted to the            base station from the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the            steps of any of statements 1 to 13.    -   49. The method of statement 48, further comprising, at the UE,        providing the user data to the base station.    -   50. The method of any of statements 48 and 49, further        comprising:        -   at the UE, executing a client application, thereby providing            the user data to be transmitted; and        -   at the host computer, executing a host application            associated with the client application.    -   51. The method of any of statements 48 to 50, further        comprising:        -   at the UE, executing a client application; and        -   at the UE, receiving input data to the client application,            the input data being provided at the host computer by            executing a host application associated with the client            application,        -   wherein the user data to be transmitted is provided by the            client application in response to the input data.    -   52. A communication system including a host computer comprising        a communication interface configured to receive user data        originating from a transmission from a user equipment (UE) to a        base station, wherein the base station comprises a radio        interface and processing circuitry, the base station's        processing circuitry configured to perform any of the steps of        any of statements 14 to 26.    -   53. The communication system of statement 52 further including        the base station.    -   54. The communication system of any of statements 52 and 53,        further including the UE, wherein the UE is configured to        communicate with the base station.    -   55. The communication system of any of statements 52 to 54,        wherein:        -   the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured            to execute a host application;        -   the UE is configured to execute a client application            associated with the host application, thereby providing the            user data to be received by the host computer.    -   56. A method implemented in a communication system including a        host computer, a base station and a user equipment (UE), the        method comprising:        -   at the host computer, receiving, from the base station, user            data originating from a transmission which the base station            has received from the UE, wherein the UE performs any of the            steps of any of statements 1 to 13.    -   57. The method of statement 56, further comprising at the base        station, receiving the user data from the UE.    -   58. The method of any of statements 56 and 57, further        comprising at the base station, initiating a transmission of the        received user data to the host computer.

ABBREVIATIONS

At least some of the following abbreviations may be used in thisdisclosure. If there is an inconsistency between abbreviations,preference should be given to how it is used above. If listed multipletimes below, the first listing should be preferred over any subsequentlisting(s).

-   1×RTT CDMA2000 1× Radio Transmission Technology-   3GPP 3rd Generation Partnership Project-   5G 5th Generation-   ABS Almost Blank Subframe-   ARQ Automatic Repeat Request-   AWGN Additive White Gaussian Noise-   BCCH Broadcast Control Channel-   BCH Broadcast Channel-   CA Carrier Aggregation-   CC Carrier Component-   CCCH SDU Common Control Channel SDU-   CDMA Code Division Multiplexing Access-   CGI Cell Global Identifier-   CIR Channel Impulse Response-   CP Cyclic Prefix-   CPICH Common Pilot Channel-   CPICH Ec/No CPICH Received energy per chip divided by the power    density in the band-   CQI Channel Quality information-   C-RNTI Cell RNTI-   CSI Channel State Information-   DCCH Dedicated Control Channel-   DL Downlink-   DM Demodulation-   DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal-   DRX Discontinuous Reception-   DTX Discontinuous Transmission-   DTCH Dedicated Traffic Channel-   DUT Device Under Test-   E-CID Enhanced Cell-ID (positioning method)-   E-SMLC Evolved-Serving Mobile Location Centre-   ECGI Evolved CGI-   eNB E-UTRAN NodeB-   ePDCCH enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel-   E-SMLC evolved Serving Mobile Location Center-   E-UTRA Evolved UTRA-   E-UTRAN Evolved UTRAN-   FDD Frequency Division Duplex-   FFS For Further Study-   GERAN GSM EDGE Radio Access Network-   gNB Base station in NR-   GNSS Global Navigation Satellite System-   GSM Global System for Mobile communication-   HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request-   HO Handover-   HSPA High Speed Packet Access-   HRPD High Rate Packet Data-   LOS Line of Sight-   LPP LTE Positioning Protocol-   LTE Long-Term Evolution-   MAC Medium Access Control-   MBMS Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Services-   MBSFN Multimedia Broadcast multicast service Single Frequency    Network-   MBSFN ABS MBSFN Almost Blank Subframe-   MDT Minimization of Drive Tests-   MIB Master Information Block-   MME Mobility Management Entity-   MSC Mobile Switching Center-   NPDCCH Narrowband Physical Downlink Control Channel-   NR New Radio-   OCNG OFDMA Channel Noise Generator-   OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing-   OFDMA Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access-   OSS Operations Support System-   OTDOA Observed Time Difference of Arrival-   O&M Operation and Maintenance-   PBCH Physical Broadcast Channel-   P-CCPCH Primary Common Control Physical Channel-   PCell Primary Cell-   PCFICH Physical Control Format Indicator Channel-   PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel-   PDP Profile Delay Profile-   PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel-   PGW Packet Gateway-   PHICH Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel-   PLMN Public Land Mobile Network-   PMI Precoder Matrix Indicator-   PRACH Physical Random Access Channel-   PRS Positioning Reference Signal-   PSS Primary Synchronization Signal-   PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel-   PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel-   RACH Random Access Channel-   QAM Quadrature Amplitude Modulation-   RAN Radio Access Network-   RAT Radio Access Technology-   RLM Radio Link Management-   RNC Radio Network Controller-   RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier-   RRC Radio Resource Control-   RRM Radio Resource Management-   RS Reference Signal-   RSCP Received Signal Code Power-   RSRP Reference Symbol Received Power OR Reference Signal Received    Power-   RSRQ Reference Signal Received Quality OR Reference Symbol Received    Quality-   RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator-   RSTD Reference Signal Time Difference-   SCH Synchronization Channel-   SCell Secondary Cell-   SDU Service Data Unit-   SFN System Frame Number-   SGW Serving Gateway-   SI System Information-   SIB System Information Block-   SNR Signal to Noise Ratio-   SON Self Optimized Network-   SS Synchronization Signal-   SSS Secondary Synchronization Signal-   TDD Time Division Duplex-   TDOA Time Difference of Arrival-   TOA Time of Arrival-   TSS Tertiary Synchronization Signal-   TTI Transmission Time Interval-   UE User Equipment-   UL Uplink-   UMTS Universal Mobile Telecommunication System-   USIM Universal Subscriber Identity Module-   UTDOA Uplink Time Difference of Arrival-   UTRA Universal Terrestrial Radio Access-   UTRAN Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network-   WCDMA Wide CDMA-   WLAN Wide Local Area Network

1.-39. (canceled)
 40. A method performed by a wireless device fortransmitting capability information to a base station in a network, themethod comprising: receiving, from the base station as part of a requestfor capability information, an indication that a protocol utilizingsegmentation is supported by the network for transmission of capabilityinformation; responsive to the wireless device supporting the protocolutilizing segmentation for transmission of capability information,selecting the protocol utilizing segmentation for transmission ofcapability information, thereby making it possible to transmit morecapability information than one Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)data unit can contain; and transmitting capability informationassociated with the wireless device to the base station in segments,according to the protocol utilizing segmentation, each segment having amaximum size corresponding to the size of one PDCP data unit.
 41. Themethod of claim 40, wherein the method further comprises: responsive tothe wireless device not supporting the protocol utilizing segmentation,selecting a legacy protocol for transmission of capability information;and transmitting the capability information associated with the wirelessdevice to the base station according to the legacy protocol.
 42. Themethod of claim 40, wherein the indication received from the basestation as part of a request for capability information identifies afilter associated with the protocol utilizing segmentation, wherein thefilter indicates which capability information the wireless device is totransmit.
 43. The method of claim 40, wherein the protocol utilizingsegmentation is a combination protocol utilizing compression andsegmentation.
 44. The method of claim 40, wherein the indicationreceived from the base station as part of a request for capabilityinformation identifies a size indication, wherein the size indicatorindicates one of: a maximum size of a message to be transmitted by thewireless device comprising the capability information, or a maximumnumber of messages to be transmitted by the wireless device to transmitthe capability information.
 45. The method of claim 40, furthercomprising: providing user data; and forwarding the user data to a hostcomputer via the transmission to the base station.
 46. A methodperformed by a base station for controlling the receipt of capabilityinformation from a wireless device at the base station, the methodcomprising: transmitting, as part of a request for capabilityinformation, an indication that a protocol utilizing segmentation issupported by the network for transmission of capability information,thereby making it possible to receive more capability information thanone Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) data unit can contain; andresponsive to the wireless device supporting the protocol utilizingsegmentation, receiving capability information associated with thewireless device in segments, according to the protocol utilizingsegmentation, each segment having a maximum size corresponding to thesize of one PDCP data unit.
 47. The method of claim 46, furthercomprising, responsive to the wireless device not supporting theprotocol utilizing segmentation, receiving the capability informationassociated with the wireless device according to a legacy protocol. 48.The method of claim 46, wherein the indication transmitted as part of arequest for capability information identifies a filter associated withthe protocol utilizing segmentation, wherein the filter indicates whichcapability information the wireless device should transmit according tothe associated protocol.
 49. The method of claim 46, wherein theprotocol utilizing segmentation is a combination protocol utilizingcompression and segmentation.
 50. The method of claim 47, wherein theindication transmitted as part of a request for capability informationidentifies a size indication, wherein the size indicator indicates oneof: a maximum size of a message to be transmitted by the wireless devicecomprising the capability information, or a maximum number of messagesto be transmitted by the wireless device to transmit the capabilityinformation.
 51. The method of claim 47, further comprising, responsiveto receiving the capability information associated with the wirelessdevice, updating an Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) withthe capability information associated with the wireless device.
 52. Themethod of claim 46, further comprising: obtaining user data; andforwarding the user data to a host computer or a wireless device.
 53. Awireless device for transmitting capability information to a basestation in a network, the wireless device comprising: processingcircuitry configured to: receive, from the base station as part of arequest for capability information, an indication that a protocolutilizing segmentation is supported by the network for transmission ofcapability information; responsive to the wireless device supporting aprotocol utilizing segmentation for transmission of capabilityinformation, select the protocol utilizing segmentation for transmissionof capability information, thereby making it possible to transmit morecapability information than one Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP)data unit can contain; and transmit capability information associatedwith the wireless device to the base station in segments, according tothe protocol utilizing segmentation, each segment having a maximum sizecorresponding to the size of one PDCP data unit; and power supplycircuitry configured to supply power to the wireless device.
 54. Thewireless device of claim 53, wherein the processing circuitry is furtherconfigured to: responsive to the wireless device not supporting theprotocol utilizing segmentation, select a legacy protocol fortransmission of capability information; and transmit the capabilityinformation associated with the wireless device to the base stationaccording to the legacy protocol.
 55. A base station for controlling thereceipt of capability information from a wireless device, the basestation comprising: processing circuitry configured to: transmit, aspart of a request for capability information, an indication that aprotocol utilizing segmentation is supported by the network fortransmission of capability information, thereby making it possible toreceive more capability information than one Packet Data ConvergenceProtocol (PDCP) data unit can contain; and responsive to the wirelessdevice supporting at least one of the one or more protocols and the sizeof the capability information exceeding a PDCP protocol limit forsignaling, receive capability information associated with the wirelessdevice in segments, according to the protocol utilizing segmentation,each segment having a maximum size corresponding to the size of one PDCPdata unit; and power supply circuitry configured to supply power to thebase station.
 56. The base station of claim 55, wherein the processingcircuitry is further configured to: responsive to the wireless devicenot supporting the protocol utilizing segmentation, receiving thecapability information associated with the wireless device according toa legacy protocol.